The power of the couple.
Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons just hit major milestones in their career. The Power of the Dogs co-stars and real-life couple nabbed their first Oscar nominations for their work in the western film on Tuesday, Feb. 8. Kirsten, 39, was nominated for Best Actress In A Supporting Role while Jesse, 33, earned a spot in the Best Actor In A Supporting Role category.
For Kirsten, who shares two kids with Jesse, the day also marked a major moment in their relationship.
“It’s just so crazy to be a couple and have our first nominations together,” she told Variety on Feb 8. “It’s like a storybook. You know what I mean? It’s so weird. It’s amazing.”
Giving a rare look at her home life, Kirsten said she got the news while home alone with the couple’s kids—Ennis, 3, and James, 5-months—and was “crying” and “screaming” with excitement.
“So my manager, calls me. I’m watching the feed on my phone because my kids are watching cartoons and Jesse is at work,” she explained to the outlet. “[He] called me, and he said I was nominated, so I’m crying with my kids. They’re like, ‘Why the hell is mom crying?.'”
She said while on the phone with her mom, her manager called her back and delivered the news that Jesse had also been nominated.
“I started screaming and I hung up the phone,” she recalled. “Then of my publicists called me because she’s trying to tell me and I just screamed at her. Then I called Jesse and I was the first person to tell him.”
She added, “He was a little shell shocked.”
The actors met in 2015 while filming the second season of the FX drama series Fargo. From the get-go, Jesse was smitten with his co-star, describing his experience of working with Kirsten as “a gift.”
“I loved Kirsten’s work for a long time, and I was really excited once I’d met her,” he shared at PaleyFest that year. “She’s a great person, and we’re both actors that just have fun with the material.”
Kirsten and Jesse’s on-screen chemistry soon turned into a real-life romance and the two got engaged in January 2018. The Bring It On alum previously said she knew Jesse was “going to be a soulmate” ever since they played onscreen spouses on Fargo.
“I just knew he would be in my life forever,” she gushed to PorterEdit in 2019. “I didn’t know what capacity that would be at the time. When the show was over, I just missed him terribly.’
She continued, “We didn’t get together until a year later. We were both smart enough that we were wondering if the connection was just because we were working together. But it was real.”
Kirsten and Jesse aren’t the only couple going after Oscars wins together this year. Javier Bardem and his wife Penélope Cruz were both nominated for Academy Awards—Javier in the Best Actor category for his role as Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos and Penélope in the Best Actress category for her work in the Spanish film Parallel Mothers.
