Julia Stiles is only 38 years old. The way she doesn’t really “fit” into so many Hollywood casting decisions, you would think that she was older than that, right? But no – she’s not even 40. She’s been working consistently for 20 years, with a break to get her college degree and various breaks when the work simply wasn’t there for her. Nothing really “happened” to Julia, that’s my point. She was just sort of shuffled off to indie films and character work and TV work (she currently has a starring role on Riviera). Julia knows that her career has been a bit strange too. She’s currently in Hustlers, playing the journalist who interviews all of the strippers after their scam. She chatted with the Daily Beast about her career and Hustlers and how she finally feels like she can make sense of her career:
She campaigned for a role in Hustlers: “They were like, you might really like this but the part’s not that flashy because you’re not playing a dancer…I spoke to [the director] and I was like, I don’t care if I have to sweep the floors. I’ll do anything to be part of this movie.”
She is playing the journalist interviewing the hustlers: “They could have made five different versions of this story. It could have been Striptease. It could have been Showgirls. It could’ve been a true crime story demonizing these women, focusing on the aftermath of what happened to the men they drugged. But Lorene focuses on the sisterhood and the partnership between these women, trying to get us to understand why these women did what they did.”
Her career at the age of 38: “If you had talked to me two or three years ago, I might have been more nervous or more frustrated, but I’m really, really happy where I am now… I felt like I was sort of jumping from job to job that I wasn’t really connected to, and worried about where my career was going. 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…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.”
On 10 Things I Hate About You’s 20th anniversary: “I don’t take it for granted that people are talking about the movie 20 years later. It’s an affirmation that even back then the things, the stories, and the roles that I was drawn to, other people were interested in as well. That was the first time I really read a female character, especially as a teenager, who was feisty and opinionated and unapologetic.”
Going to Columbia University just when her career was heating up: “It happened to me before I could really understand what was going on,” she says. Going to college helped her keep her head on straight. “Academic professionals don’t really give a sh-t 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.”
As I read this, it sort of struck me that we’re always talking about “second chances” and “who gets to come back” after scandal or crime or harassment. And Julia didn’t do anything to anybody, she did nothing wrong at all, she just… had, like, a decade in the career wilderness because directors didn’t know what to do with her. She’s a talented actress – she always was. But I totally get how she felt like she didn’t “fit” anywhere. Anyway, I’m glad she’s “back” (again, she never left!) and I’m excited to see Hustlers!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.
I loved, and still love, her in 10 Things! I didn’t make this one of my TIFF picks because it honestly didn’t look that good, but she would’ve been fun to meet.
One can’t mention Julis Stiles without talking about cinematic masterpiece that was Save the Last Dance
Omg, i l.o.v.e. Save the Last Dance!!! The entire cast was amazing!
Hustlers is THAT.GOOD.
Nah I looked and personally, I don’t see it. She just looks older in a wiser sense to me.
Anyway, been in this biz for a while…(writer) I realize 2 things are the most important…
1) Create your own buzz…if you have the means, produce your own work. She has the means and name. If it’s all about artistic freedom, she can do it. Not necessarily blockbusters, but authentic work. Real work. Whatever she finds real.
2) You only allow someone to put you in a box IF you allow it. Aside from ego, work can be abundant. So many ways to be your own boss in this day.
She looks like she has those mom-of-young-child tired eyes. Anybody else see em?
She does look a little bit tired, I see what you mean, it might just be the way her make up is done . Those earrings are gorgeous though.
Her son Strummer will be 2-years-old on November 17th.
I sort of get it but also, if a talented, beautiful, thin and white woman is a huge mystery to casting directors then who exactly is a fit????? I pray for everyone with an ounce more melanin or a pound more fat lol
The problem is that Hollywood have casting very stereotypical for young actresses in their twenties:
-There is the cool girl is sexy as Jennifer Lawrence
– There’s the cute and innocent girl as Emma Stone
– there’s the sexy and bad-ass girl as Margot Robbie
– there is the girl who is a boy misses as Kirsten Stewart
– there is the strange girl as Ronney Mara
perhaps that was her “problem” (if you can call white privilege that) – there is an ocean of tall, thin white women with talent trying to make it. So she didn’t stand out among them and she’s not overly social media-present to keep her relevant.
Defs not disagreeing with you, just looking at it from the way she may have seen/felt it
It’s called karma.
For?
For what?
Could be because people often think she’s Scientologist, though that’s Erika Christensen. I think it was Tony Ortega who clarified JS is not but because JS and EC look so much alike people get confused.
Thirding the for what?
There were rumors that she was blackballed for a while because she slept with the wrong person. Like she slept with a producer (not a la Weinstein, it was a “normal” affair) or director and the wife found out and got pissed and made the husband promise not to cast her in anything. (so classic case of “other woman being punished.”) I am not sure I have that right, but it was along those lines.
That was all I ever heard though. I’m surprised that more people here haven’t heard the same thing, it was always the explanation given for why she kind of dropped off the face of Hollywood for an extended period of time.
And I have zero clue if its true.
I’ve heard this Becks1. Also – she allegedly had an affair with Michael C. Hall while she filmed season 5 of Dexter with him, when he was still married to Jennifer Carpenter. I think this was right before she dated David Harbour.
I loved, loved, loved 10 Things I Hate About You. Still holds up!
I remember that scandal! And I believe she was blackballed but no one cared really
@Becks1, I’ve been a Julia Stiles fan since before she filmed “10 Thinks I Hate About You” at the age of 19 and I have never, ever heard any rumor about her sleeping with a Producer or anyone else for a job. She has never lived in Los Angeles, always New York City.
The only ‘rumor’ about her came from Lainey after Julia starred in season 5 of Dexter. Lainey claimed that Julia and Michael C. Hall had an affair during the filming of season 5 that caused his divorce from actress Jennifer Carpenter, but the divorce papers fled by Jennifer after the season 5 finale in December (which are a matter of public record) listed the couples’ separation date as early August. Julia didn’t arrive on set until July.
What was Lainey’s proof of an affair? One of the set workers saw Michael C. Hall looking at Julia’s butt one day. There were never any pictures of them together or any other first hand, credible account of them being seen out in public together offered as proof … just the fact that one day Michael C. Hall checked out Julies butt on set. Lainey also said that the two were seen at a Halloween party in New York City, at the same time they were filming the final season episodes in Long Beach CA, yet not one person at that party managed to take a cell phone shot of them. Funny that.
@yvette – I rarely read Lainey and have never seen dexter and I heard this rumor years and years ago (not sure how it lines up time wise with dexter.). I’m a Julia fan, you don’t have to defend her, but this was def a rumor that went around. I’m not making it up out of the clear blue.
I really like Julia Stiles and love her talent. She is, in my opinion, one of the most talented, underrated actresses working today. It’s a shame she hasn’t gotten more roles.
For me, the sad irony is that Julia, who was 31 at the time, was the perfect age and type for the role as Tiffany (based on the book) in “Silver Linings Playbook. ” But the AH director David O. Russell decided an actress a decade younger should have the role, and Julia got the bit part as Tiffany’s older sister, Veronica. What’s sadder still is that he cut nearly every scene Julia was in so the sole focus would be on Jennifer Lawrence (based upon stills from the set).
Julia will always remain one of my girl crushes. 🙂
Ugh DOR is a creep! That’s why we gotta support female directed, produced movies like Hustlers.
There is not a doubt in my mind that he cut Julia’s scenes because she was so much better than Jennifer.
I saw Hustlers last night and please y’all run, don’t walk, to your nearest theater this weekend. It’s a heartwarming, hilarious, bittersweet story about female friendship. If you’re on the fence about it, just read all the Rotten tomatoes reviews especially Pajiba’s. JLo was born to play Ramona. Keke is great and Cardi is so funny in it.
I’ve never seen an audience so engaged with a movie. You just don’t want it to end.
Am I the only one that doesn’t think she’s a good actress at all? She played a bratty teen ok, but she sort of fumbles all of her adult roles? Just me?
I like a few things she’s been in, but yeah, she’s terrible. It’s the monotone voice I think.
I kind of get that she had trouble finding a niche in blockbuster films. She is intelligent, intellectual (not the same thing), arty, and Manhattan at the same time. She’s really only a household name bc of the movies she played as a teenager. Otherwise, I think her career would always have been in indie films (same for Joseph Gordon Leavitt for that matter).
Not only Indy films. She played the character Nicky Parsons in the four Matt Damon “Jason Bourne” films.
I will always thank her for giving us Kat Stratford. Now I wanna see Hustlers!!
Kat Stratford is so great. I love that movie.
@Originaltessa
Co-sign infinity times. Remember her stint in Dexter? GARBAGE.
Yeah, Dexter was where I really started to notice she can’t act, then the Borne movies… like her role should be so easy, but she’s somehow bad. Not forgettable, but actually bad imo.
Her saying that people in Hollywood don’t care about college made me remember Natalie Portman and the Olsen twins being asked this-natalie was on a red carpet when star wars was coming out ‘why are you even going to college? You already have this career.’ she said ‘id rather be smart than a movie star’ which I thought was a bit much but the question still shows people in that industry tend to think the sun rises and sets on Hollywood and there’s nothing anywhere else that matters and they assume everyone wants to be in that industry too. Emma stone said she left LA and moved to new York because all people talk about there is that industry
My nephew is a professional actor who just graduated from college. I told him,”Yes you want to be a respected actor, but if you go to college, you’ll have a broader understanding of various different walks of life, AND if you make it big, you’ll be less likely to be swindled by your business manager! I have always LOVED Julia; to me she projects “cool”! She has a very interesting face and an unusual voice too.
@Nikki, and those remarkable root-beer color eyes. Very unique, especially for a natural blond.
I really like her, I hope more good chances will go her way, she deserves it!
Actors are the most insecure people on this planet it’s stunning. To move past it, forge your own way. It’s never worth anyone telling you what yours is.
Wasn’t she blackballed for an affair with Michael C. Hall, though?
I think the reason she “disappeared” is part of the problem with Hollywood that because she turned 30, she was no longer sexy to play the ingenue roles but also not old enough to play the “mother roles”.
Julia was blackballed because everyone on the Dexter set knew of her affair with M. C. Hall, and how upset J. Carpenter was. So it would be incorrect to say she never had a scandal-she was unapologetic and her career stalled.