Kirsten Dunst admits that she was shocked at the success of her teen cheerleading movie ‘Bring It On’. The film, which came out in 2000, followed Dunst's character Torrance Shipman, the new captain of her school's cheerleading team. While training new recruit Missy (Eliza Dushku), she must face the fact that the previous captain plagiarized their routine from a rival team. This stokes the rivalry between the two teams that forms the backbone of the plot as Dunst faces off against their leader, Gabrielle Union's Isis.
‘Bring It On’ had a very respectable box office performance, landing at #32 in the domestic chart for the year. The film's audience grew even more when it came out on home video, and it has endured in the pop culture consciousness since then, launching a franchise that includes 4 direct-to-video sequels and a Broadway musical co-written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Along with other classic early 2000's comedies like ‘Legally Blonde’, ‘Mean Girls’, and ‘13 Going on 30’, ‘Bring It On’ was also heavily referenced in Ariana Grande's music video "thank u, next."
Speaking with EW, Kirsten Dunst explained how shocked she was when the film ultimately became a hit. She explains that the film started its life as a scrappy little low-budget project, "a little Universal movie that no one cared about." She "never thought that movie would be as big as it is," but now she lives in a world where people still quote it all the time, including her own friends. Read the full quote below:
We made the movie for nothing. We were a little Universal movie that no one cared about. Even my friends — who tell me how it is — will be like, “I’ll get the door, Tor.” I never thought that movie would be as big as it is. News rush