Julia Stiles' career was on fire in the late '90s and early aughts after teen movie 10
Things I Hate About You catapulted her into stardom. But then she took a hiatus from Hollywood
to pursue a college degree. So what is there to know about her? This is the untold truth
of Julia Stiles.
Before Julia Stiles landed a breakthrough role, the young actress was trying to make
a name for herself in Hollywood. As a pre-teen, she landed small roles in shows like Ghostwriter,
and she even scored her first big-screen role in I Love You, I Love You Not before starring
as Harrison Ford's daughter in The Devil's Own. According to The Telegraph, Stiles lost
the role of Claudia in Interview with the Vampire to Kirsten Dunst in 1994 but would
beat out several actresses for the part of Kat in 10 Things I Hate About You in 1999.
Stiles was relatively new to Hollywood and she was presumably up against actresses like
Kate Hudson and Katie Holmes.
Stiles was drawn to the part because Kat was so different than the other heroines in popular
teen comedies. She told InStyle in September 2019:
"The reason that I wanted that part so badly was because I thought it was so refreshing,
seeing a teenage girl be feisty and opinionated and be a fish out of water, but proudly [so]."
The strong chemistry between Stiles and her on-screen love interest, Heath Ledger, also
helped her land the part.
"I was watching you out there before, I've never seen you look so sexy."
When Julia Stiles first popped up on the Hollywood radar, she gravitated toward intelligent,
brazen female roles. The actress starred in three films based on Shakespeare plays over
the course of a year.
Stiles' breakout film, 10 Things I Hate About You, was inspired by Shakespeare's Taming
of the Shrew, and she followed it up by starring in an adaptation of Hamlet opposite Ethan
Hawke and in O, an adaptation of Othello, alongside Josh Hartnett and Mekhi Phifer.
But Stiles didn't intend to star in the Shakespeare-inspired films. She told Entertainment Weekly in March
1999:
"I didn't set out to be in three Shakespeare movies. But just because I had done (10 Things),
I wasn't going to turn down the acting experiences of my life."
The actress continued to be drawn to Shakespeare. In 2002, she starred in a presentation of
Twelfth Night in Central Park.
In 2001, Julia Stiles starred in Save the Last Dance, another memorable teen movie.
The film focuses on a white Midwestern girl who falls in love with her Black classmate,
played by Sean Patrick Thomas, after the pair bond over their love of dance. The film was
a hit, likely in part to Stiles' vulnerable and emotional performance, and it has gone
on to become a cult classic.
While fans adore the film and Stiles' portrayal of Sara, Stiles admitted to Good Morning America
in September 2019 that she found her performance hard to watch. She said:
"Save the Last Dance came on TV the other night […] and there was a part of me that
was curious about the memories of making that movie. And then I immediately turned it off
because it was cringeworthy to me."
Stiles compared watching her old film to looking back at old photos of herself as a teen. She
said:
"When you see pictures of yourself as a teenager, part of you goes like, 'Oh yeah', and then
part of you is like, 'Oh my God.'"
At the height of her acting success and popularity, Julia Stiles did the unthinkable: she walked
away. The actress left the glamour of Hollywood life for academia and enrolled at Columbia
University.
Stiles graduated with a major in English literature in 2005 and told the Independent in August
2007 that she wasn't sure if her degree helped her obtain acting roles. She stated:
"It's funny, because being cerebral isn't necessarily the best thing for an actress.
It is in terms of understanding a role or understanding what roles you want to choose,
but in terms of being a visceral actor and reacting emotionally to things, it can be
an obstacle. I tend to think about things too much."
But going to school helped Stiles stay grounded. She told The Daily Beast in September 2019:
"Academic professionals don't really give a s--- about me being in a movie or having
to go the MTV Movie Awards. But then also people in the entertainment industry don't
really care about university. That helped me a lot."
On a different path than her early days of Shakespeare adaptations, Julia Stiles starred
in season 5 of Showtime's hit series Dexter in 2011. Her character, Lumen, sought revenge
on her abusers with help from Dexter, and eventually romance would blossom between the
pair over the course of the season.
Stiles was drawn to the part because Lumen wasn't just a victim; she was a layered character.
She told The Hollywood Reporter in August 2011:
"I was really excited by the idea that she would be involved in Dexter's secret life,
as opposed to on the outside of it like a lot of the other characters."
The role earned Stiles an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actress in a drama series
in 2011. Although she didn't win that year, the actress had a blast starring on the show
and really, quote, "enjoyed the kill scenes."
As Julia Stiles adjusted to acting life as an adult, her personal life changed dramatically.
In October 2017, the actress welcomed her first child with husband Preston J. Cook.
The star confirmed the exciting news in an Instagram post on Nov. 21, 2017, sharing an
image of her newborn's tiny hand along with the caption:
"Strummer Newcomb Cook, born October 20, 2017."
The new mom tries to maintain a certain level of privacy, especially after receiving widespread
criticism over how she was holding her son in a photo she posted to Instagram in November
2017. In response to the backlash, Stiles told InStyle in September 2019:
"I can take all the criticism, I can deal with that. I'm an adult. But when they started
making comments about him, the mama bear kicked in and I was like, 'Oh, hell no. That's totally
off limits, and how dare you?' I don't really have regrets, but it was a big lesson for
me to not share photos with my son."
While Julia Stiles has enjoyed an acclaimed career for decades, starring in fan-favorite
films like 10 Things I Hate About You and Save the Last Dance, the actress began feeling
out of place in Hollywood. She told The Daily Beast in September 2019:
"I think a few years ago my frustration was feeling like nobody knew what to do with me.You
know, I had had some success in my twenties and now I'm in a different place in my life
and I didn't really fit anywhere."
After landing her coveted role as the journalist Elizabeth in Hustlers in 2019, the actress
felt a sense of belonging again. The movie is based on a true story in which a group
of female dancers con their wealthy clients and was inspired by journalist Jessica Pressler's
2015 article featured in The Cut.
Stiles even reached out to Pressler in preparation for the role. She explained how they met on
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen:
"We both were working at the time and couldn't find childcare, and so I was like well let's
just have a playdate"
She told Glamour in September 2019:
"I brought my son over to her apartment, and he proceeded to destroy her living room while
we talked about everything that led to this point. There were so many interesting anecdotes
I took away from our meeting, but I also really learned that she's got a lot of compassion
for the people she writes about."
Julia Stiles rose to fame during a much simpler time without social media being an everyday
aspect, having to endure comments or need to endlessly self-promote herself online,
which is something she's thankful for now.
She told InStyle in September 2019:
"When I was starting out, becoming more successful and having to promote what I was in, doing
an interview like this for instance, I'd still be careful about what I was saying, but I
didn't have to worry about something being pulled out of context for clickbait and the
Twittersphere."
Stiles talked about having a presence online nowadays in a 2019 interview with Harper's
Bazaar, stating:
"You have to be a lot more cautious, so much more is recorded now but then at the same
time, with Instagram and Twitter, you have an opportunity to have a more direct platform
and I am trying to navigate that, just like everyone else is."
And the actress admitted in an interview with NME, if she had it her way, nobody would be:
"Quoted in print before the age of 30."
Looking back on the '90s, when Stiles was firmly in the paparazzi's sights, she deadpanned
that maybe going out without makeup on, or even simply dressed down, wasn't the best
idea. Stiles wishes she'd chosen her words more carefully, admitting to a lack of experience
speaking to the press. She recalled:
"I learned through trial and error what it means to be quoted."
Explaining if she could do it all over again, she stated:
"I wouldn't have said things for effect and for popularity over things that I actually
thought."
Although Hollywood is well known for age discrimination of actresses above the age of 30, Julia Stiles
isn't concerned about finding work as she gets older. She admitted to Glamour that in
her 20s, the idea of trying to find work ten or twenty years later would've been terrifying.
She now feels the opposite, stating:
"I feel like the opportunities for me and my peers are better and better as we get older."
Stiles acknowledged that she started out being offered the girlfriend role, which slowly
transitioned to the mother, but the older she gets, the material and offered roles get
better. The Riviera star reiterated in an interview with InStyle:
"I think the roles that we're playing have gotten so much more interesting than what
we were doing in our 20s."
The movie 10 Things I Hate About You was such a major, career-defining moment for Julia
Stiles, one that will likely continue to dominate interviews even into her golden years. But
the actress is more than happy to continue discussing her character, Kat, and everything
she loved about playing her. Stiles credits the role with getting her more interesting
parts down the line, too. She gushed to NME:
"We were all really present and it was just so uninhibited. None of the actors felt jaded
or shut down."
When it comes to the matter of a reunion sequel, however many years later, she's not against
the idea, although Stiles admitted to having no idea how it would work. On where her most
beloved character would be a decade or two on, she said:
"I would hope that Kat would be a lot happier outside of high school."
The '90s star would even watch such a movie herself, as she'd be interested to see how
it all works out.
She may regret some of the things she said early on in her career, but there were also
times Julia Stiles wishes she'd spoken up more. In an interview with Coveteur, the actress
hinted at some of the difficulties she had as a less experienced performer, referring
to a, quote, "hostile director" who pushed her around, limiting her ability to be creative.
She elaborated in an interview with Glamour, admitting to being screamed at and driven
to tears on set. She recalled:
“And the producers essentially came to me and said, 'this is how it goes!' So, that
message to me was you have to take this kind of behavior."
Although the 10 Things I Hate About You star acknowledged she wasn't confident enough to
fight back, nowadays Stiles knows how to stick up for herself. As she explained to Coveteur,
the desire to be a people-pleaser is something all actors have to contend with, but she can
be assertive when necessary. But Stiles stated that thankfully acting allows us to:
"Say and do all the things on screen that we don't get to do in real life."
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