Julia Stiles Gets The Do-Over She Waited 25 Years For

Nov 02, 2026 by apost team

Julia Stiles is getting the chance to revisit one of the most talked-about moments of her career — and this time, she is doing it on her own terms.

The actress, 45, revisited her 2001 film “Save the Last Dance” on “Dancing with the Stars.” She and her partner, Ezra Sosa, performed a jazz routine inspired by the movie’s dance sequence. Set to Jennifer Lopez’s “Jenny from the Block,” it reimagined aspiring ballerina Sara Johnson’s Juilliard audition and featured Stiles’ former costar, Sean Patrick Thomas.

For Stiles, who was 19 when the teen drama premiered, the tribute was more than nostalgia. It was a chance to revisit a moment she had long wished she could do over.

“I wasn’t gonna come on this show and recreate that dance and not step it up a notch,” she told PEOPLE at the show’s Oct. 14, 2026, event in Los Angeles.

The routine earned Stiles and Sosa their highest score of the season thus far. Thomas, who played Sara’s love interest Derek, added another dose of nostalgia. Stiles said seeing her former costar there made the evening feel “full circle.”

Stiles also reflected on how differently she sees herself today. She wished her younger self could have known how much more at ease she would eventually become.

“Little Julia back then, I wish that she could have known that like years later she would be here, making that dance even better,” she said. “Like, I’m a grown woman now, and I’m so much more comfortable in who I am and how I look and all that, that I wish that she had known that at the time.”

That confidence was not always there. Stiles has said the attention surrounding “Save the Last Dance” made her self-conscious. She had practiced modern dance for years, but after the film’s release she stopped taking classes, worried about being judged and compared with her character.

“I completely wilted,” she recalled, describing the effect of the scrutiny.

The film’s dance scenes also came with a misconception Stiles has since cleared up. Although she trained and rehearsed to portray Sara, a body double performed the complicated sequences. And despite the character’s storyline, Stiles never attended Juilliard.

In a 2021 interview with TODAY, she described working to get in shape and make it believable that Sara could dance at an advanced level. Still, the preparation did not spare her from feeling exposed when audiences weighed in.

Now, “Dancing with the Stars” has given Stiles a chance to dance without hiding behind a character. She joined hoping to rebuild her confidence as a performer and enjoy dancing in front of an audience again.

Sosa, 25, noticed the change before they took the stage. He told PEOPLE Stiles looked focused and full of energy, and said it was special to watch her come into her own.

The reunion was carefully planned. Sosa said co-host Alfonso Ribeiro suggested including Thomas after learning he would be in the audience. The production team helped make it happen.

Stiles later told Entertainment Tonight she had wanted a second chance with the film for 25 years — and never expected to get it on a show she loves. This time, she returned to Sara’s dance with something her younger self was still searching for: the confidence to enjoy it.

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What do you think of the reboot of Julia Stiles’s dance? Were you a fan of the original movie? Let us know, and then pass this along to friends and family who love getting their own groove on, too!