Kirsten Dunst thinks cheerleaders deserve respect.
The young star of "Dick," and "The Virgin Suicides" is about to grace the screen again, in the teen cheerleading flick "Bring It On," which opens this Friday.
Kirsten hopes the new movie will help to break down a few stereotypes about cheerleaders, TV Guide reports.
"This movie actually portrays cheerleaders as intelligent and not ditzy blondes," she told TV Guide Online. "I'm so sick of seeing that cliche. Usually when you see cheerleaders they're getting killed in horror movies or something like that."
In "Bring It On," Kirsten will play a captain of a cheerleading team that makes it to the national ESPN competition.
Playing a cheerleader wasn't much of a stretch for the actress. Kirsten became part of her cheerleading team when she was in grade eight.
"I was working on my films, and was sort of looked on as 'the actress'," she told TV Guide Online. "I was always going off to do a film. It was like I was coming and going, and you feel like you're not really part of the school. So that's why I did the cheerleading thing. I wanted to be more popular and become part of the in-crowd ... But, by the time I got to high school, I had given [it] up."
