The Untold Truth Of Julia Stiles

Julia Stiles' career was on fire in the late '90s and early aughts, as the actress was coming off of a star-making turn as Kat Stratford, a smart, bold, feminist teenager in the hit teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You." The film catapulted Stiles into stardom, but she stood out among her peers by choosing subsequent roles in Shakespearian films like "O" and "Hamlet" and the interracial love story "Save the Last Dance." The versatile actress was careful about the parts she chose as she rose up the ranks of Hollywood, and, after cementing her status as the "thinking teenager's movie goddess," the star took a hiatus from Hollywood to pursue a college degree.

As Stiles entered adulthood, she found that it became tougher to find roles well-suited for her. However, Stiles further secured her place in Hollywood in 2019, when she landed the part of a journalist in the Jennifer Lopez-led film Hustlers, which has been hailed by critics as an empowering female heist drama. While the actress continues her re-emergence in film and TV, let's take a look back at her career. 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," which also co-starred Brad Pitt. While the film gave Stiles the opportunity to work next to some A-list actors, the actress almost had an opportunity to work with Pitt in a film a few years earlier.

The film was 1994's "Interview with the Vampire," and Stiles had auditioned for the part of Claudia, a vampire child. The role eventually went to Kirsten Dunst, as Stiles reportedly was considered "too old" for the part by the film's director, Neil Jordan, as reported by The Telegraph.

Thankfully, the actress didn't let losing the coveted part stop her from pursuing her acting career, and audiences would see her strong, captivating performances in "10 Things I Hate About You" and "Save the Last Dance" a few years later.

While Julia Stiles lost the role of Claudia in Interview with the Vampire to Kirsten Dunst in 1994 (via The Telegraph), she would beat out several actresses for the part of Kat in "10 Things I Hate About You" in 1999. At the time, Stiles was relatively new to Hollywood and she was presumably up against actresses like Kate Hudson and Katie Holmes, whose stars were both on the rise. 

Stiles was drawn to the part because Kat was so different than the other heroines in popular teen comedies at the time. In an interview with InStyle in September 2019, Stiles said, "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, helped her land the part. As the film's casting director, Marcia Ross, told The New York Times in March 2019, "We screen-tested Josh Hartnett, Eliza Dushku, Heath and Julia. But Julia and Heath just had the best chemistry together."

When Julia Stiles first popped up on the Hollywood radar, she gravitated toward intelligent, brazen female roles, unlike the ones featured in most teen rom-coms focused on a teen girl undergoing a makeover to win a guy. Coincidentally, the well-read 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 the actress followed it up by starring in an adaptation of "Hamlet" opposite Ethan Hawke. She also acted in O, an adaptation of Othello, alongside Josh Hartnett and Mekhi Phifer.

Surprisingly, Stiles didn't intend to star in the Shakespeare-inspired films. In an Entertainment Weekly interview in March 1999, Stiles said, "I didn't set out to be in three Shakespeare movies," noting, "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, and, in 2002, she starred in the Delacorte Theatre's presentation of "Twelfth Night" in Central Park.

At the height of her acting success and popularity, Julia Stiles did the unthinkable: She walked away. The actress left the glitz and glamour of Hollywood life for academia, enrolling in Columbia University.

Stiles, who graduated with a major in English literature in 2005, told Independent.ie in August 2007 that she wasn't sure if her degree helped her obtain acting roles. "It's funny, because being cerebral isn't necessarily the best thing for an actress," she said. "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."

While going to college may or may not have helped her with Hollywood success, 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."

Julia Stiles starred in several Shakespeare adaptations throughout her career, so it's no surprise she would take her acting chops to the stage one day. In 2009, the actress took on the role of Carol in the Broadway play "Oleanna," opposite Bill Pullman. The two-person play focuses on a college professor and his student who is failing his course.

Stiles previously played the same role in London in 2005, starring alongside Aaron Eckhart. She explained why she revisited the role In an interview with Broadway.com in October 2009, saying, "When I did it in London, I was in college [at Columbia University]. I was very much like the good student who doesn't question why I'm there. I think I politicized the play too much. ... I was fighting against the play." 

She continued, "What I was really excited with this production was [the opportunity] to embrace what the play calls for. I felt like I could go deeper with it. I also was curious what would happen playing opposite a different actor. There're so many amazing lines in the play. It just stuck with me."

In 2011, Julia Stiles took on the role of a woman teamed up with a serial killer. The actress starred in Season 5 of Showtime's hit series "Dexter." Portraying an abuse victim named Lumen, Stiles sought revenge on her abusers with the help from the show's titular character, and 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 — and she got to kill someone on-screen. 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 "enjoyed the kill scenes" her character got to participate in.

In 2001, Julia Stiles added another memorable teen movie to her resume, "Save the Last Dance." The film focuses on a white Midwestern girl who falls in love with a 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, the actress admitted to Good Morning America in September 2019 that she found her performance hard to watch. "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," she said, adding, "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. "When you see pictures of yourself as a teenager, part of you goes like, 'Oh yeah,'" she said. "And then part of you is like, 'Oh my God.'"

As Julia Stiles adjusted to acting life as an adult, her personal life changed dramatically. In October 2017, the actress welcomed her first child, a son, with her 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 has been overjoyed with her life caring for her son, but she still 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." She continued, "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."

She's since welcomed a second child, Arlo, in January 2022.

Sometimes when a person meets their favorite celebrity or someone they admire, the encounter doesn't exactly turn out as they had always dreamed. This was the case for Julia Stiles, who "totally embarrassed" herself when she met "Fleabag" creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge at the 2019 BAFTA Awards. 

The actress detailed the brief experience to The Daily Beast in September 2019, explaining how — after having a few drinks — she gushed to Waller-Bridge about admiring her work, and then ended their encounter by winking at her. "Then I was like, 'Oh my god, why did I do that? I'm so sorry," Stiles shared. She continued, "I was like, 'I'm tired and have a twitch — like you know when you're tired and your eye just starts twitching?' I totally embarrassed myself."

While the encounter was laughable for Stiles looking back, it was certainly memorable — and on point with the lovable characters she has portrayed in the comedy films that make up her filmography.

When Julia Stiles read the script for Lorene Scafaria's "Hustlers," she knew she had to be a part of the film. The movie focuses on a group of female strippers who con their wealthy clients, and Stiles portrayed the part of the journalist who interviews them about their crimes. The movie is based on a true story, and was inspired by journalist Jessica Pressler's 2015 article featured in The Cut. 

To prepare for the role, the actress reached out to Pressler, her character's real-life counterpart, via Instagram, and they eventually scheduled a playdate for their kids. 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. 

She continued, "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."

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 as she aged. 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." Stiles went on, "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."

However, after landing her coveted role as the journalist Elizabeth in "Hustlers" in 2019, the actress felt a sense of belonging again. She explained in the same September 2019 interview, "But a movie like Hustlers to me is such an affirmation that like I have a place in the film industry and stories that I'm interested in are being told."

When Julia Stiles was a teen, she lost out on the highly coveted role of Claudia in "Interview with the Vampire" because director Neil Jordan deemed her to be "too old" for the part. Coincidentally, the actress went on to work with Jordan in the Sundance crime drama "Riviera" in 2017. The show became a hit for the network.

In the series, Stiles plays Georgia Clios, an art curator attempting to uncover the truth behind her husband's death. The character commits some immoral acts throughout the series, and Stiles has enjoyed playing the anti-hero. In an interview with Deadline in February 2019, Stiles said, "The thing I think about an anti-hero that I think is interesting is that, I like watching the process of how does this person slide into immorality."

In fact, the crime behind the success is the element of the story that drew Stiles to the part. She told Paper Mag in September 2019, "The original nexus of the idea behind Riviera that sold me was this idea that behind every fortune is a great crime, and "Hustlers" kind of deals with the same thing."

Julia Stiles rose to fame during a much simpler time. Without social media, the actress didn't have to endure hateful comments from trolls or need to endlessly self-promote herself online, which is something she is thankful for. 

In an interview with InStyle in September 2019, Stiles said, "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."

The actress previously shared the same sentiments in an interview with Harper's Bazaar in May 2019, saying, "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." While social media wasn't really a thing back in 1999, Stiles has certainly upped her social media game since, frequently sharing images on Instagram and tweeting to her followers.

The romance between Julia Stiles' Kat Stratford and Heath Ledger's Patrick Verona still makes us swoon, but offscreen, there was nothing going on between the two actors. However, Stiles did enjoy a brief dalliance with another "10 Things I Hate About You" co-star. During an interview on the YouTube channel "Mirá a Quién Encontré," director Gil Junger reminisced about the iconic poem-reading scene from the movie, during which Stiles shows some impressively raw emotion — Junger even admitted he was bawling himself by the end of the one and only take(!). 

As for where all that emotion came from, "She told me, 'I was just thinking about' — that person's name that she was deeply in love with at the time." Junger was quick to confirm that it wasn't Ledger who was on Stiles' mind. Rather, when pressed by the interviewer, he revealed, "She, for a minute or 10, went out with Joseph Gordon-Levitt," who played Cameron in the hit movie. Junger explained, "They were very, very attracted to each other." Notably, a 2001 Rolling Stone profile referred to Levitt as Stiles' ex but she clarified they were just "friends."

Julia Stiles is probably relieved not to have come of age with social media capturing everything she was doing and saying wrong, but that doesn't mean she escaped completely unscathed. As 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.

For the most part, though, she's grateful for that time in her life, and she looks back on it fondly. However, 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, "I wouldn't have said things for effect and for popularity over things that I actually thought."

Although Hollywood is, unfortunately, very well known for putting actresses out to pasture once they've hit the age of 31 — sometimes even before — Julia Stiles isn't concerned about finding work as she gets older. In fact, Stiles is relishing the parts she's getting in her 30s and 40s. She admitted to Glamour that, in her 20s, the idea of trying to find work ten or 20 years later would've been terrifying. Now that she's actually there, however, she said, "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 meatier the material the actress is being offered. 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 in her golden years. Thankfully, the actress is more than happy to continue discussing her character, Kat, and everything she loved about playing her. "We were all really present and it was just so uninhibited. None of the actors felt jaded or shut down [on the set]," she gushed to NME. Stiles credits the role with getting her more interesting parts down the line, too.

When it comes to the matter of a reunion sequel — however many years later — she's not against the idea, although she admitted to having no idea how it would work logistically, considering her character was in high school at the time.

The late Heath Ledger touched so many lives, not least those of the people he worked with. During an appearance on People's "People in the '90s" podcast, Julia Stiles looked back on their shared breakout roles in the beloved teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You." She reminisced about how wonderful Ledger was to work with, noting, "He wasn't trying to compete with me. He stood back and he was like, this is your scene." She continued, saying, "When they did his reaction shot, he didn't well up. He didn't go, 'Okay, now I have to do something with my side of the camera.' He was just like, 'That was beautiful and this is your scene.'"

The actor also acknowledged how confident Ledger was in his abilities, even though he was a relative newcomer at the time, admitting actors aren't always so gracious. The Aussie import was the oldest cast member and, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stiles revealed how he "kind of led the pack," particularly since they all stayed together during shooting. Naturally, everybody was excited to be working on the movie so they had a great time.

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. The actress hinted at some of the difficulties she had as a less experienced performer, referring to a "hostile director" who pushed her around, limiting her ability to be creative, in an interview with Coveteur. She elaborated with Glamour, admitting to being screamed at and driven to tears on set. She recalled, "It was my first day of work 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. Thankfully, acting allows Stiles to "say and do all the things on screen that we don't get to do in real life."

Julia Stiles is very thankful for her career and all the work she's been lucky enough to get, particularly since her '90s heyday, but there are still certain roles she wouldn't even consider pursuing, never mind the way she doggedly did with Kat all those years ago. As she explained to Coveteur, "I don't know how much of it is in my control and it maybe is a mix of what I gravitate towards and what people consider casting me in," but, especially as she gets older, Stiles is drawn to stronger female characters.

She's emotionally invested in those kinds of stories even if, as the actress acknowledged, it wasn't a conscious effort from "10 Things I Hate About You" onward. One particular role she could never imagine herself playing, however, is also one of the most famous in film history. Stiles told The Independent succinctly, "I could never be a Bond girl," stating, "I'll only accept a part if there's something I can contribute to a character."

"Riviera" star Julia Stiles apparently also has a long-dormant desire to be a singer. In an interview with Romper in late 2021, the actor shared that working on the animated series "Dragons: The Nine Realms," which is part of the beloved "How to Train Your Dragon" franchise, helped Stiles realize her aspirations.

"It's like the closest I'll ever get to being a singer or a musician," she argued, "because you have to put everything into your voice — a higher or lower pitch, a different inflection at the end of the sentence, that kind of thing." Stiles was also thrilled to be doing work her children can watch too, acknowledging that for much of his life, her son Strummer probably thought all she did was sit around getting glammed up all day long. 

Now that he can see "Dragons: The Nine Realms" for himself, Stiles' little one can finally appreciate just how much effort goes into doing what she does for a living.

Julia Stiles took some time off from her career to attend college, but being a budding star made it difficult to blend in with the other students. In particular, as she recalled during an interview with W magazine, the actor was mortified when "a limo for the MTV Movie Awards [pulled] up in front of my dormitory with my name on it." Thankfully, Stiles was able to take it in stride and continued to focus on her studies, eventually earning a bachelor's degree in English.

However, similar to Kat Stratford, one of her most famous characters, Stiles fretted about selling out in the eyes of her idols, including folk singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco. Thankfully, as she informed The Independent, "I was lucky that when I started becoming more recognizable as an actress and when fame hit, social media wasn't a big thing, if at all. It was easier to have a line between work and play." Stiles, therefore, had the space to figure out who she was, on and offscreen, without too much outside intrusion from others.

Regardless of what trajectory her career takes, Julia Stiles will always be synonymous with Kat Stratford. Her lovably spiky "10 Things I Hate About You" character is a feminist hero, teaching a whole generation of young women how to express their anger in a healthy way, as Hello Giggles pointed out. And, if you're wondering where Kat would be nowadays, the woman who made her a household name has an idea.

Stiles told The Hollywood Reporter, simply, "I think she'd be happier being out of high school." That makes sense, considering Kat had such a tough time dealing with constantly being surrounded by, as she so memorably put it, "unwashed miscreants." The actor is incredibly touched that Kat meant so much to fans, telling the publication, "It was such an affirmation that, even at 17, my instincts, in terms of what I was interested in, actually resonated with other people, too." No matter where Kat ended up, though, it's safe to assume she's doing just as well as Stiles.

In 2021, after years of working in front of the camera, Julia Stiles started getting ready to make her directorial debut with an adaptation of the romance novel "Wish You Were Here" (via Deadline). Stiles co-wrote the screenplay with the novel's writer, Renée Carlino, but she will not be appearing in the movie.

The story follows unlucky-in-love Charlotte, who enjoys a night of passion with the mysterious Adam, only for him to drop off the face of the earth immediately afterward. When Charlotte finally tracks him down, she discovers Adam hasn't got long left and dedicates herself to making his final days special.

Although "Wish You Were Here" marks Stiles' feature directorial debut, she has several episodes of the TV show "Paloma" under her belt. The "Save the Last Dance" star posted the exciting news on Instagram, writing, "So excited to share, bringing this beautiful book to life." Stiles continued, writing, "We need more romance in this world, more love, more connection. Hope to make you all smile, make you laugh, and make you cry that good cry."

Julia Stiles is one of the many celebrities who's stopped eating meat in favor of vegetarianism. As she shared in an interview with EcoStiletto (via Vegetarian Star), she made the decision to go vegan for a variety of reasons, including her own health, disturbing information she'd read about factory farming, and her own "spiritual reasons" for eschewing meat. 

However, as she revealed during a 2003 appearance on "Conan," she then segued from vegetarian to vegan, something she subsequently realized was "a big mistake." In fact, she declared, "I gave it up. I became really badly anemic ... it's not healthy if you can't do it right, so I just stopped it." Asked how she felt when she took her first bite of red meat again, she gushed, "Oh god, the word 'orgasm' comes to mind." Jokingly lamenting the fate of those "poor little cows," she admitted, "It tastes real good."

However, she subsequently told Female First that particular remark was something she'd come to regret, explaining she'd exaggerated in order to get some laughs on a late-night talk show. "I changed diet because it really wasn't healthy," she explained. "Being vegan is a hard thing to do ... When you are traveling there is no way you can get proper nutrition. So now I do eat some red meat but not all the time."

One of Julia Stiles' most memorable movies is 2003's "Mona Lisa Smile." She plays a Wellesley College student in the 1950s whose mind is opened by the views of a free-thinking professor (played by Julia Roberts), only to set aside her dreams of attending law school in order to get married and take on a more traditional female role of that era. 

As it turned out, her role in that film held a certain degree of art imitating life, given that Stiles was a real-life college student attending Columbia University at the time she was portraying one onscreen. She told Cosmopolitan that juggling school and her Hollywood career was no mean feat. "I took off a semester from school to do 'Mona Lisa Smile,' I did 'The Prince & Me' last summer, and I'm taking off this semester to do 'Oleanna' in London. At the rate I'm going, it looks like I probably won't graduate from college until I'm about 30 years old, but that's okay," she joked.

She told the "People in the '90s" podcast that being a Hollywood star and a college student simultaneously led to some surreal situations when her two lives overlapped. "And then, yeah, there were some really funny, weird moments, like a limo for the MTV Movie Awards pulling up in front of my dormitory with my name on it," she recalled.

Julia Stiles swerved into the action genre with her portrayal of Nicolette "Nicky" Parsons in 2002's "The Bourne Identity." She would revive the character alongside Matt Damon (who starred as titular hero Jason Bourne) in the sequels "The Bourne Supremacy" (2004), "The Bourne Ultimatum" (2007), and "Jason Bourne" (2016).

Had the filmmakers stuck to the original plan, however, Nicky wouldn't have been back for those sequels. In fact, nobody was more shocked than Stiles that the character survived the first film, given that she'd filmed Nicky's death. "Yeah, it was a complete surprise to me," Stiles told Collider. "I filmed a scene where Jason Bourne flips Nicky upside-down against a wall and I break my neck and so, as far as I knew, that was it for Nicky Parsons!" It wasn't until principal photography was completed and she was called back to rerecord dialogue that she discovered her character hadn't died. "They needed to have sounds of me breathing so that we knew that she was still alive," she recalled.

According to Stiles, she enjoyed her experience within the franchise enough that she remained open to doing other action movies — but only if the characters were three-dimensional and the plot involved more than just car chases, fight scenes, and explosions. "In terms of action without the character development, that's not something I am really interested in," she told Vanity Fair.

Juia Stiles made another career shift when she signed on for 2006's "The Omen," a remake of the 1976 horror classic, in which a couple comes to realize their son is the Antichrist. "I really enjoy watching horror films, but I never thought I wanted to be in one because usually actors are just reacting a lot, they're not getting to do much," she explained in an interview with Movieweb. However, she felt that "The Omen" was far more intriguing than a more typical horror film in that much of the scariness is psychological, not visceral. "There really is a story you can sink your teeth into beyond the violence and the gore," she added. 

However, she admitted that she did approach the role with a significant amount of trepidation. "Actually, I was terrified," she told Campus Circle. 

One aspect of her performance left her feeling a bit regretful: the distance she deliberately kept from young actor Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick — who played Damien, son of her character, Katherine Thorn. Stiles did this to reinforce the psychological divide between Katherine and her demonic progeny. For that reason, she was glad that the youngster wasn't doing interviews for the movie. "Because if he did it would be: 'What was it like to work with Julia Stiles?' [And he'd reply)]: 'She was really mean to me!'" she told the Irish Examiner.

Among Julia Stiles' more popular rom-coms is "The Prince & Me," in which she played a college student named Paige who falls for Eddie, a fellow student from Copenhagen (Luke Mably), not realizing he's actually Edward, Crown Prince of Denmark. She made the film, as she did several others, in the midst of studying at Columbia University. 

She told Australia's Girl.com.au that when digging into the role, she came to an epiphany about herself when she realized there were elements of the character that were seemingly lifted from her own personality. "But as we were rehearsing and I'm playing Paige more and more, I realized that her sarcasm is sort of a defence mechanism, a way of being antisocial and sort of protecting herself from the possibility of being rejected by a guy," she recalled. "It occurred to me that I do that too."

That being said, Stiles was also quick to point out that her actual experience as a college student didn't really furnish her with as much insight into portraying a college student as one might assume. "No, because actually, the character is really science-oriented and hates Shakespeare, and I'm an English major who hates science," she told LiveAbout. "So, it's really the opposite."

In 2012, Julia Stiles made yet another unexpected career move by starring in "Blue," a web series for the YouTube channel WIGS, which specialized in female-driven content. As Stiles explained during an appearance on "Lorraine," at the time the series was initially conceived, the popularity of Netflix and other streaming services had yet to explode, leading her to feel the series was breaking new ground. "It was kind of like a little art experiment, and we didn't know it was gonna grow, or gain an audience that it did — I had no idea we were gonna make three seasons," she said.

If the viewing platform was something of a departure for Stiles — who to that point had worked in film, television, and stage, but not online — so too was her role, a high-end escort nicknamed Blue. As Stiles told Entertainment Weekly, the show explores the complications of compartmentalizing the various aspects of her life so her job as a sex worker doesn't bleed over into the other parts. "[The show] explores the stigma associated with [being an escort]," Stiles said. "She's got to weave a tangled web of lies," she later added.

It's that precise element of the character, however, that Stiles found particularly intriguing. "You get to see a full, well-rounded person," she explained. "She's a mom, a daughter, a friend, an escort, and an accountant."

Julia Stiles has demonstrated her flair for comedy, and she ventured even further into the genre when she was cast in "The Lake." In the 2022 Canadian film, streaming on Prime Video, a gay man (Jordan Gavaris) reconnects with the daughter he gave up for adoption (Madison Shamoun) by taking her to his family's lakefront cottage — which, he is horrified to discover, his late father left to his estranged, high-strung stepsister Maisy-May (Stiles). 

For Stiles, the role represented an opportunity to demonstrate a side of herself that she felt audiences hadn't seen to that point. "Nobody really thinks of me in comedy that much, even though I have done a bit of it, and I was really eager to do something with this sense of humor," she told Elle Canada. "I had to show that I'm not only capable of doing drama."

Appearing on "Good Morning America" to promote the show, Stiles admitted she was in a more comedic frame of mind at the moment and had been primarily watching comedies in her downtime. "I also was thinking I wanted to go to work every day and try and make other people laugh, make myself laugh, instead of having to cry, or scream, or be terrified," she explained of her desire to work on a comedy project.

Julia Stiles made a return to the horror genre with 2022's "Orphan: First Kill." In the long-awaited sequel to 2009 horror hit, Isabelle Fuhrman reprises the role of Esther, a 9-year-old girl who is adopted by an unsuspecting couple who don't realize she's an adult homicidal maniac with a rare hormonal condition that gives her the appearance of a young child. This time, Esther — having escaped from a psychiatric facility in Estonia — journeys to America, where she masquerades as a wealthy couple's long-missing daughter.

Stiles portrays Tricia, mother of the missing girl, who eventually turns the tables on Esther's scheme. As Stiles told Screen Rant, that plot twist essentially allowed her to play two very different incarnations of the same character. "But then, once she figures out what's going on with Esther, to see how she handles that is, I think really interesting," she said. "And that's what drew me to it. Esther's kind of met her match in that way."

Given that Fuhrman had grown into a young woman and was no longer a child, some camera tricks and movie magic were used to create that illusion — including giant KISS-style platform boots that Stiles wore to emphasize the difference in their characters' heights. "I wish I had worn stilts!" Stiles told Looper. "That would've been less humiliating than wearing these leather thigh-high boots with platforms that kept getting bigger. We call them 'the Gene Simmons boots.'"

Julia Stiles has been acting professionally since childhood and has elegantly navigated the often tricky transition from teen roles to a full-fledged career as an adult actor. Over the course of all those years, Stiles has come to a realization about the vocation she's been working for decades.  

While discussing her role as an escort in the web series "Blue," she shared that epiphany she'd had about the similarity between actors and escorts. "I do relate to the fact that as part of my job I'm paid to kiss strangers," she told The Independent. 

Despite all the love scenes she's filmed over the course of her Hollywood career, Stiles admitted that those intimate moments hadn't become any easier for her to film. "When we first started shooting, I thought I was a lot bolder than I actually am," she told HuffPost of her "Blue" sex scenes. "The first episodes we shot were very manageable, then as we came back to do more and [series creator] Rodrigo [Garcia] had of course written more sex scenes, the amount of time it took me to get out of my dressing room on those mornings was a lot longer." However, she understood that those scenes, as tough as they were for her personally, were integral to the series. "You can't have a story about a sex worker without showing some sex," she conceded.