Caught in the web
She's already signed up for two Spider-Man sequels and performs many of her own stunts in the movie but Kirsten Dunst says that in real life she's no action heroine.
The 20-year-old actress plays Spider-Man's feisty dream girl Mary Jane Watson and spends much of the film being attacked, rescued and falling off high structures.
Dunst, who doesn't like heights, admits she found it all pretty scary and says she has no desire to ever play a superhero herself.
"I'm not the girl for bungee jumping, jumping out of airplanes or anything like that. I'm not into any of that," she laughs.
"I don't need to play any superheroes, I got my fill with Spider-Man. I think if I did another superhero thing for myself it would be a little much."
She adds: "I usually don't like these movies, but I wouldn't have done this film if I didn't think it would appeal to girls too. And this movie has a good heart and a good romance."
In one part of the film, based on the Marvel comic-book, Dunst is dropped from a high bridge after being captured by Spider-Man's sworn enemy The Green Goblin (played by Willem Dafoe).
"It was scary. I'm really afraid of heights," she confesses. "But Sam [director Sam Raimi] would always be like, 'Come on pal, buddy old pal'. I just kinda had to go with it.
"I was comfortable with the stunt men. They were great. I probably had a month of just dropping and falling."
Working with computer-generated special effects was also a challenge for Dunst who made her movie debut at the age of seven in director Woody Allen's New York Stories.
Chatting animatedly about Spider-Man in a trendy Beverly Hills hotel, she says: "It's hard to act - you are out there supposed to be scared of this thing coming to kill you or that thing and you're yelling for nothing.
"You just have to commit and use your imagination, you have to just throw yourself in there and imagine it and that's difficult to do when you are tired and have been hanging in that harness all day.
"When your legs are sore and your body is like all twisted and contorted and you are supposed to be screaming for your life."
Growing up in New Jersey, Dunst had little interest in comic books, preferring dolls and cartoons to superheroes like Peter Parker aka Spider-Man.
Now she's set to appear in two more Spider-Man films after signing up for the sequels before she had even completed the first movie.
"I really loved the story of Spider-Man," she explains, "And I knew this was a part that I could develop and that could go places.
"It's not just a superhero movie, you feel connected to these characters you feel like you can relate to them and there are many places we can go with my role and Peter's role and I really feel like it's a challenging acting experience as well as being in a big film.
"It's hard to get both these days - good material in a big film - and Spider-Man is a really great story."
In Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson is Peter Parker's pretty and popular next-door neighbour. Parker (played by Tobey Maguire) has been in love with her since he first saw her at the age of six but she barely notices he exists.
Dunst says of her character: "She has a hard home life and she is really insecure you know, wearing these masks pretending everything's okay in school and dating the right guy. And she's just not very accepting of herself.
"I think that Peter Parker really brings out the self-confidence in her and she was finding it before in the wrong guys and it wasn't doing her much good.
"But I think by the end of the film she's on the right track, probably."
Dunst and Maguire share several kisses in the movie - including that famous one when Spider-Man is hanging upside down - and their on-screen chemistry led to rumours of an off-screen romance during filming.
These are rumours which Dunst has consistently and adamantly denied.
"I wasn't dating Tobey. Never," she insists. "But you know what, the stories are good publicity for the film, so I just see it that way."
Dunst says she wasn't tempted to get romantically involved with 26-year-old Maguire who underwent gruelling physical training to shape up for his superhero role.
"I can understand how that little chemistry we have can be mistaken for a real connection.
"But you've got be careful - it's not good to start something with a co-star. It just makes working situations tricky. Because what if you have a fight or something?
"Then you'd have to deal with that on the set and you have enough work concentrating on the film."
