Hollywood stars Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons had to slum it with the hoi polloi at a five-star Auckland hotel after applications for them to isolate in an isolated rural property were declined.

That applied-for exception – which was pitched as a make-or-break deal to get the power couple to New Zealand – would have been on top of the one already granted to allow them into New Zealand, at a time virtually all foreigners were banned due to Covid-19 border restrictions.

The added exception would have meant them serving their two weeks’ managed isolation at a secluded rural property rather than an Auckland five-star hotel the rest of the imported crew were at.

Questions to Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (Mbie) to clarify whether the special exemption was granted were referred to the Ministry of Health, which cited privacy concerns in its refusal to respond.

However, an interview Dunst gave to Variety magazine, in which she discussed the challenges of "having a 2-year-old in a hotel room for two weeks, showed they stayed in the hotel, despite talk of them being unable to come to New Zealand if they had to do so.

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The married couple were coming to New Zealand to star in Jane Campion film The Power of the Dog.

Documents supplied by Mbie under the Official Information Act show co-producer Chloe Smith was leading the charge to get the couple out of staying at the SO/ Auckland hotel and into the rural property.

“In order for Ms Dunst and Mr Plemons to undertake their travel to New Zealand, they must be assured of the highest standards of privacy,” Smith’s application said.

“There is a huge amount of public interest in Ms Dunst and Mr Plemons and their activities.

“She is routinely followed by paparazzi photographers and articles have been published on their activities in New Zealand.”

It cited a Stuff article from almost two months earlier about the pair dining at an Oamaru restaurant as well as a NZ Herald article from the same time, also about them being in Oamaru.

“We will be unable to give them an assurance of privacy and, therefore, we will be unable to complete the film, if they are required to isolate under managed conditions,” Smith wrote.

That application was sent on May 21, six hours after Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) said the request for the couple, and their child, could not be accommodated.

“Managed isolation must be undertaken in a facility (hotel) that has wrap-round health and security services in place already,” the Mfat denial letter said.

That email said the crew were staying in the So hotel in Auckland, which was a “recently opened five-star hotel located in the Auckland CBD”.

The back-and-forth came a week after producers were told Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford had granted permission for 16 “essential” workers to enter New Zealand for the film.

That was on the understanding they went through managed isolation or quarantine in an approved facility and all costs were met by the film company.

The documentation shows that Dunst, Plemons, and their child had wanted to stay at an “isolated rural property” instead of the hotel. It was the same place they had spent time at during the earlier New Zealand lockdown.

The pair had returned to Los Angeles after the initial lockdown.