Teen Rom-Com Queen Julia Stiles Faded From The Spotlight But Returns With Surprising Projects

Aug 17, 2022 by apost team

When Julia Stiles was propelled into the Hollywood elite after her star-making turn in “10 Things I Hate About You,” it was expected she would run the gamut of the teen star cycle: rom-coms in her 20s, edgier fare in her 30s and mom roles in her 40s onwards. Whether or not by design, Stiles has failed to follow this tried and true path. So, where is she now?

Stiles was born on Mar. 28, 1981, in New York City and is of English, Irish and Italian descent. She began acting in New York's La MaMa Theatre Company at the age of 11 before making her big screen debut in the Claire Danes and Jude Law 1996 headliner “I Love You, I Love You Not.” But it was in 1999 that Stiles’s career trajectory would shoot upwards.

That year, she played the rebellious Kat Stratford in “10 Things I Hate About You,” an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” She played the foil to the romantic ambitions of her younger sister Bianca, played by Larisa Oleynik. To start dating Bianca, who cannot date until Kat does, new student Cameron, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, hatches a plan to set Kat up with Patrick Verona, played by the late Heath Ledger.

The film was an instant hit, turning Stiles and Ledger into hot Hollywood property and becoming a high school rom-com classic. Stiles, who beat out the likes of Kate Hudson, Katie Holmes, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Kirsten Dunst to land the role, told InStyle in 2009:

“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).”

So what has Stiles been up to since?

After “10 Things,” Stiles starred in more Shakespeare adaptations such as “Hamlet” and “O,” as well as “Save The Last Dance,” “Down To You” and “Mona Lisa Smile.” She credited a lot of the unconventional roles offered to her to “10 Things,” telling NME:

“If there’s one consistent thing, it’s that I have since generally been given roles where the character has a lot of strength. I think that started with Kat. Immediately afterward, there were a lot of romantic comedies, teen comedies. But then as I got a little bit older and that trend shifted, it all started to change for me as well.”

One of those roles would be in the thriller series “The Bourne Identity,” in which she would appear in all three installments. 

Stiles decided to also pursue a college degree and headed to the prestigious Columbia University to study English Literature. Of her stint at the Ivy League school, she told The Independent in 2007:

“The good thing about being in college was that people took little interest in me because they were so preoccupied with their own ambitions and exams. Also there’s that thing in academia where movie-making isn’t supposed to be that important, it’s sort of low-brow. So that was refreshing to me and I was determined to be taken seriously.”

Stiles was also aware that studying may not have been the best career choice for her, saying, “I guess I ended up taking a break just as my career was taking off. It was good to slow things down a bit in my 20s. In university, and when I finished, I wasn’t as clear about what I wanted to do. … Whereas now, I’m a little more thoughtful about what I work on in terms of my career and the bigger picture.”

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That bigger picture included a family. After previous relationships with co-star Gordon-Levitt and actor David Harbour, Stiles met camera assistant Preston Cook on a film set. The pair married in 2017 while she was pregnant with her first child, Strummer. They welcomed their second child Arlo on Jan. 26, 2022.

After becoming a mother, Stiles became aware her options were more limited. She told the Daily Beast in 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.”

In 2019, she was cast in the Jennifer Lopez girl power crime film “Hustlers.” Stiles had high praise for the movie, saying, “they could have made five different versions of this story. It could have been ‘Striptease.’ It could have been ‘Showgirls.’ … But (director) Lorene Scafaria focuses on the sisterhood and the partnership between these women, trying to get us to understand why these women did what they did.”

In 2022, Stiles returned to TV with “The Lake,” in which she plays wicked stepsister Maisy-Mae. Stiles told Elle she was intrigued by the idea of doing comedy, as “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. I had to show that I’m not only capable of doing drama.”

Stiles also stars in “Orphan: First Kill,” released in August 2022.

With these projects, fans will not only get to see different sides to Stiles but perhaps also more of her in the future. 

Have you missed seeing Julia Stiles on-screen? What are your favorite films of hers? Let us know, and don’t forget to pass this on to all the film buffs you know.