Jump to content

Julia Stiles

Listen to this article
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 92.40.248.199 (talk) at 22:06, 28 August 2016 (I updated the time scale of her appearing in the Bourne film series as she appeared in the most resent Bourne film in 2016.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Julia Stiles
Stiles in April 2007 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City
Born
Julia O'Hara Stiles

(1981-03-28) March 28, 1981 (age 43)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma materColumbia University (B.A.)
OccupationActress
Years active1993–present

Julia O'Hara Stiles (born March 28, 1981) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Stiles began acting at age 11 and made her screen debut as Erica Dansby in six episodes of the television series Ghostwriter (1993-1994). Her first film role was in I Love You, I Love You Not (1996), followed by a leading role in the thriller Wicked (1998), for which she was awarded the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Award for Best Actress. She went on to gain prominence for her lead roles in teen films such as 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) for which she won MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards, Down to You (2000), for which she was nominated for another two Teen Choice Awards, and Save the Last Dance (2001), winning the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress and was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance.

Stiles later went on to transition to more adult roles, garnering a nomination for the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her performance in The Business of Strangers (2001), Mona Lisa Smile (2003), and The Omen (2006). She became known to a wider audience for her supporting role alongside Matt Damon as Nicky Parsons in the Bourne film series (2002-2016), a role she reprised nine years later in Jason Bourne (2016). She had a recurring role as Lumen Pierce in the fifth season of the Showtime series Dexter (2010), a role that earned her nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. As a member of the cast of Silver Linings Playbook (2012), Stiles was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Stiles appears in the Blue web series also broadcast on television (2012–present). Other film roles include romantic comedy The Prince and Me (2004), noir-inspired drama-thriller A Little Trip to Heaven (2005), British-Canadian co-production The Cry of the Owl (2009), Between Us (2012), Out of the Dark (2014), and with Anthony Hopkins in Blackway (2016) (also known as Go With Me).[1]

Early life

Stiles was born in New York City,[2] to parents Judith Newcomb Stiles, a potter, and John O'Hara, a businessman.[3] She is the eldest of three children with a brother, Johnny, and a sister, Jane.[4] Stiles is of English, Irish, and Italian descent.[5] She started acting at the age of 11, performing with New York's La MaMa Theatre Company.[6]

Career

Film career

Stiles' first film role was in I Love You, I Love You Not (1996), with Claire Danes and Jude Law.[7] She also had small roles as Harrison Ford's character's daughter in Alan J. Pakula's The Devil's Own (1997) and in M. Night Shyamalan's Wide Awake (1998). Her first lead was in Wicked (1998), playing a teenaged girl who might have murdered her mother so she could have her father all to herself. Critic Joe Balthai wrote she was "the darling of the 1998 Sundance Film Festival."[8]

In 1999, she portrayed Kat Stratford, opposite Heath Ledger, in Gil Junger's 10 Things I Hate About You, an adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew set in a high school in Seattle, Washington. She won an MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Female Performance for the role. The Chicago Film Critics voted her the most promising new actress of the year. Her next starring role was in Down to You (2000), which was panned by critics, but earned her co-star Freddie Prinze, Jr. and her a Teen Choice Award nomination for their on-screen chemistry. She subsequently appeared in two more Shakespearean adaptations. The first was as Ophelia in Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (2000), with Ethan Hawke in the lead. The second was in the Desdemona role, opposite Mekhi Phifer, in Tim Blake Nelson's O (2001), a version of Othello set at a boarding school. Neither film was a great success; O was subject to many delays and a change of distributors, and Hamlet was an art house film shot on a minimal budget.

Stiles being interviewed by Mark Steines, 2007

Stiles's next commercial success was in Save the Last Dance (2001) as an aspiring ballerina forced to leave her small town in downstate Illinois to live with her struggling musician father in Chicago after her mother dies in a car accident. At her new, nearly all-black school, she falls in love with the character played by Sean Patrick Thomas, who teaches her hip-hop dance steps that get her into the Juilliard School. The role won her two more MTV awards for Best Kiss and Best Female Performance, and a Teen Choice Award for best fight scene for her battle with Bianca Lawson. Rolling Stone pronounced her "the coolest co-ed", putting her on the cover of its April 12, 2001, issue.[9] She told Rolling Stone that she performed all her own dancing in the film, though the way the film was shot and edited might have made it appear otherwise.[9]

In David Mamet's State and Main (2000), about a film shooting on location in a small town in Vermont, she played a teenaged girl who seduces a film actor (Alec Baldwin) with a weakness for teen girls. Stiles also appeared opposite Stockard Channing in the dark art house film The Business of Strangers (2001) as a conniving, amoral secretary who exacts revenge on her boss. Channing was impressed by her co-star: "In addition to her talent, she has a quality that is almost feral, something that can make people uneasy. She has an effect on people."[10] Stiles also had a small but crucial role as Treadstone operative Nicolette "Nicky" Parsons in The Bourne Identity (2002), a role that was enlarged in The Bourne Supremacy (2004), then greatly expanded in The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).

Between the Bourne films, she appeared in Mona Lisa Smile (2003) as Joan, a student at Wellesley College in 1953, whose art professor (Julia Roberts) encourages her to pursue a career in law rather than become a wife and mother. Critic Stephen Holden referred to her as one of cinema's "brightest young stars",[11] but the film met with generally unfavorable reviews. Stiles played a Wisconsin college student who is swept off her feet by a Danish prince, played by Luke Mably in The Prince and Me (2004), directed by Martha Coolidge. Stiles told an interviewer that she was very similar to her character Paige Morgan. Critic Scott Foundas said while she was, as always, "irrepressibly engaging", the film was a "strange career choice for Stiles".[12] This echoed criticism in reviews of A Guy Thing (2003), a romantic comedy with Jason Lee and Selma Blair. Critic Dennis Harvey wrote that Stiles was "wasted"[13] and Stephen Holden called her "a serious actress from whom comedy does not seem to flow naturally".[14] In 2005, Stiles was cast opposite her Hamlet co-star Liev Schreiber in The Omen, a remake of the 1976 horror film. The film was released on June 6, 2006.[15] She returned to the Bourne series with a much larger role in The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007, which is her highest-grossing film to date.

Stiles began filming Between Us in May 2011 with co-stars Taye Diggs, David Harbour, and Melissa George. Between Us is the screen adaptation of the off-Broadway play by the same name written by playwright Joe Hortua.[16] In 2012, Stiles starred alongside David Cross and America Ferrera in the dark comedy It's a Disaster.[17] The film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was picked up by Oscilloscope Laboratories and received a commercial release in April 2013. Stiles had a small but pivotal role as a reporter in the 2013 British-American film Closed Circuit. In April 2013, it was announced that Stiles will be starring in an indie supernatural thriller Out of the Dark alongside Scott Speedman and Stephen Rea. Filming began in Bogotá, Colombia.[18]

In 2015, Stiles signed on to reprise her role as Nicky Parsons in Jason Bourne, the fifth installment of the Bourne franchise.[1]

Stage career

Stiles's first theatrical roles were in works by author/composer John Moran with the group Ridge Theater, in Manhattan's Lower East Side from 1993–1998. From July to August 2002, she performed on stage in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues,[19] and appeared as Viola, the lead role in Shakespeare in the Park's production of Twelfth Night with Jimmy Smits.[20]

In the spring of 2004, she made her London stage debut opposite Aaron Eckhart in a revival of David Mamet's play Oleanna at the Garrick Theatre.[21][22] She reprised the role of Carol in a 2009 production of Oleanna, directed by Doug Hughes and co-starring Bill Pullman at the Mark Taper Forum.[23] The production moved to Broadway's John Golden Theatre for October 11 opening night.[24]

Stiles was to play Jeannie in a production of Neil LaBute's Fat Pig directed by the playwright beginning in April 2011,[25] but the show was postponed indefinitely.[26]

Other work

Stiles appeared in the video for Cyndi Lauper's single, "Sally's Pigeons", in 1993.[27] On March 17, 2001, Stiles hosted Saturday Night Live and, eight days later, she was a presenter at the 73rd Academy Awards.[28] She returned to Saturday Night Live on May 5, appearing as then-President George W. Bush's daughter Jenna Bush in a skit that poked fun at the two first daughters for being arrested for underaged drinking.[3] MTV profiled her in its Diary series in 2003,[29] and she was Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher at a Washington, DC museum in the spring of 2004.[30]

Stiles made her writing and directorial debut with Elle magazine's short Raving starring Zooey Deschanel.[31] It premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.[32]

In May 2010, Stiles was cast in a major role in the Showtime series Dexter[33][34][35] and signed for 10 episodes.[36] For this role, Stiles received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film,[37] as well as a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

In June 2012, the web series Blue, produced by WIGS, premiered. It stars Stiles as a single mother with a 13-year-old son. She works at an office and also as a call girl to make ends meet on an otherwise meager income, and must fight to protect her son from the collision between her complicated past and tenuous present.[38]

Personal life

Stiles graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English literature.[39] In 2010, she received a John Jay Award, an annual honorary award given to five alumni by the Columbia College Alumni Association for professional achievements.[40]

Stiles has also worked for Habitat for Humanity, building housing in Costa Rica,[41] and has worked with Amnesty International to raise awareness of the harsh conditions of immigration detention of unaccompanied juveniles. In January 2004, Marie Claire featured Stiles's trip to see conditions at the Berks County Youth Center in Leesport, Pennsylvania.[42][43]

She is a former vegan, occasionally eating red meat.[44] She says she gave up veganism after she developed anemia and found it difficult to get proper nutrition while traveling.[44] Stiles has described herself as a feminist and wrote on the subject in The Guardian.[22]

She loves baseball and is an avid fan of the New York Mets.[45] She threw the ceremonial first pitch before their May 29, 2006 game.[46] She is also a fan of soccer and the New York Red Bulls.[47]

On January 3, 2016, she announced her engagement to camera assistant Preston J. Cook, with whom she worked on 2015's Go With Me.[48]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1996 I Love You, I Love You Not Young Nana's Friend
1997 The Devil's Own Bridget O'Meara
1997 Before Women Had Wings Phoebe Jackson Television film
1998 Wicked Ellie Christianson Winner Best Actress Award - Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
1998 Wide Awake Neena Beal
1999 The '60s Katie Herlihy Television film
1999 10 Things I Hate About You Kat Stratford Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress
MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance – Female
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Breakout Performance – Female
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Sexiest Love Scene (Shared with Heath Ledger)
Nominated—YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Comedy Film
2000 Down to You Imogen Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Chemistry (Shared with Freddie Prinze, Jr.)
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress
2000 Hamlet Ophelia
2000 State and Main Carla Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast
Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
2001 Save the Last Dance Sara Johnson MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Sean Patrick Thomas)
Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress
Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Fight Scene (Shared with Bianca Lawson)
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
2001 The Business of Strangers Paula Murphy Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
2001 O Desi Brable
2002 The Bourne Identity Nicolette "Nicky" Parsons
2003 A Guy Thing Becky
2003 Carolina Carolina Mirabeau
2003 Mona Lisa Smile Joan Brandwyn Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Drama/Action Adventure
2004 The Prince and Me Paige Morgan Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Drama/Action Adventure
2004 The Bourne Supremacy Nicolette "Nicky" Parsons
2005 Edmond Glenna
2005 A Little Trip to Heaven Isold
2006 The Omen Katherine Thorn Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Scream
2007 The Bourne Ultimatum Nicolette "Nicky" Parsons
2008 Gospel Hill Rosie
2009 The Cry of the Owl Jenny Thierolf
2009 Passage Ella Short film
2012 Silver Linings Playbook Veronica Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
Nominated—Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble
Nominated—Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Performance
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2012 Stars in Shorts Young Woman Short film: Sexting
2012 It's a Disaster Tracy Scott
2012 Girl Most Likely Stage Imogene
2013 Between Us Grace
2013 Closed Circuit Joanna Reece
2014 Out of the Dark Sarah Harriman
2015 The Great Gilly Hopkins Courtney Rutherford Hopkins
2015 Blackway also known as Go with Me Lillian
2016 Beyond Deceit/A.K.A. Misconduct Jane
2016 Jason Bourne Nicolette "Nicky" Parsons

Television

TV show Lead role
Year Title Role Notes
1993–1994 Ghostwriter Erica Dansby 6 episodes
1996 Promised Land Megan Walker Episode: "The Secret"
1997 Chicago Hope Corey Sawicki Episode: "Mother, May I?"
2001 Saturday Night Live Jenna Bush
Host/Herself 		Episode: "Pierce Brosnan/Destiny's Child" (uncredited)
Episode: "Julia Stiles/Aerosmith"
2004 Punk'd Herself Episode: "Kaley Cuoco/The Rock/Julia Stiles"
2009 The City Herself Episode: "I Lost Myself in Us"
2010 Dexter Lumen Pierce 10 episodes
Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series (2011)
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2010)
Nominated—Golden Nymph for Outstanding Actress – Drama Series
2013 The Makeover Hannah Higgins Television film[49]
2014 The Mindy Project Dr. Jessica Lieberstein 3 episodes

Internet

Year Title Role Notes
2012–present Blue Blue[38] Lead role; 40 episodes

References

  1. ^ a b Justin Kroll. "Julia Stiles to Reteam With Matt Damon in Next 'Bourne Identity' Film". Variety.
  2. ^ "Julia Stiles Biography". The Biography Channel. A+E Television Networks. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Julia Stiles Biography (1981–)". Film Reference. Advameg, Inc. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  4. ^ Foege, Alec (July 2002). "Stiles and Substance". Biography. 6 (7): 74. ISSN 1092-7891.
  5. ^ O'Sullivan, Charlotte (September 13, 2002). "Julia Stiles: 'That'll sound slutty'". The Independent. Archived from the original on January 22, 2009. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  6. ^ Yuan, Jada (July 20, 2007). "The Stiles Ultimatum". New York. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  7. ^ Lee, Alana (October 2003). "Julia Stiles: A Guy Thing". BBC. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  8. ^ Balthai, Joe (October 28, 1999). "Screen Idol-escents". The Arizona Republic.
  9. ^ a b Dunn, Jancee (April 12, 2001). "Is Julia Stiles too cool for school?". Rolling Stone (886): 89.
  10. ^ Kehr, Dave (December 7, 2001). "At the Movies: Understanding A Dragon Lady". The New York Times. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  11. ^ Holden, Stephen (December 19, 2003). "Film Review; Creeping 1953 Feminism, Without Quite Dispelling Dreams of Prince Charming". The New York Times. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  12. ^ Foundas, Scott (March 29, 2004). "Not a Fresh 'Prince'". Variety. 394 (7): 80, 86.
  13. ^ Harvey, Dennis (January 15, 2003). "Review: 'A Guy Thing'". Variety. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  14. ^ Holden, Stephen (January 17, 2003). "Film Review; A Hangover Is the Least of His Problems". The New York Times. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  15. ^ Julian, Roman (June 3, 2006). "Julia Stiles Talks 'The Omen'". MovieWeb. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  16. ^ Kit, Borys (April 20, 2011). "Julia Stiles, Taye Diggs to Star in Film Adaptation of 'Between Us' Play". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  17. ^ Tobias, Scott (April 11, 2013). "Zany 'It's A Disaster': Anything But". NPR. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  18. ^ McNary, Dave (April 25, 2013). "Julia Stiles, Scott Speedman, Stephen Rea Starring in 'Out of the Dark'". Variety. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  19. ^ Simonson, Robert (July 25, 2000). "Reuben, Stiles and Testa Join OB's Monologues, July 25-Aug. 6". Playbill. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  20. ^ Brantley, Ben (July 22, 2002). "Theater Review; Wayward Currents in Uncharted Waters". The New York Times. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  21. ^ Inverne, James (February 27, 2004). "Stiles, Eckhart Oleanna to Play London's Garrick Theatre in April". Playbill. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  22. ^ a b Stiles, Julia (June 17, 2004). "Who's afraid of the 1950s?". The Guardian (London). Retrieved February 27, 2006.
  23. ^ BWW NewsDesk (May 30, 2009). "Photo Flash: Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum's OLEANNA". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
  24. ^ Cox, Gordon (June 30, 2009). "'Oleanna' set for Golden Theater". Variety. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  25. ^ Gans, Andrew (January 4, 2011). "Julia Stiles Will Join Dane Cook and Josh Hamilton for Broadway's Fat Pig at the Belasco". Playbill. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  26. ^ Saad, Nardine (March 17, 2011). "Dane Cook-Julia Stiles Broadway play 'Fat Pig' postponed". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  27. ^ Pringle, Gill (September 17, 2007). "A Stiles of her own". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  28. ^ "73rd Academy Awards Show Presenters and Performers – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences". oscars.org. Archived from the original on January 3, 2008. Retrieved October 9, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ "Episodes: Julia Stiles – Diary". TV Guide. Retrieved October 9, 2008.
  30. ^ "Punk'd Season 3 Episode 3". MTV.com. Retrieved October 9, 2008.
  31. ^ "Creative Intelligence: Julia Stiles". elle.com. Retrieved October 9, 2008.
  32. ^ Freydkin, Donna (April 23, 2007). "Stiles shows her New York in 'Raving' style". USA Today. Retrieved October 9, 2008.
  33. ^ Stanhope, Kate (June 7, 2010). "Julia Stiles Joins the Cast of Dexter". TV Guide. Retrieved August 28, 2010.
  34. ^ Reynolds, Simon (December 14, 2010). "In Full: Golden Globes – Movie Nominees". Digital Spy. Retrieved December 14, 2010.
  35. ^ "Julia Stiles Stalking Dexter". MovieWeb. May 27, 2010. Retrieved May 27, 2008.
  36. ^ Hibberd, James (June 7, 2010). "Julia Stiles joins 'Dexter'". Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 11, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2010. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  37. ^ "Golden Globes: 'The King's Speech,' 'The Social Network' and 'The Fighter' reign supreme; Johnny Depp earns two nominations". Entertainment Weekly. December 14, 2010. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
  38. ^ a b Blue - Season 1, Ep. 1, Part 1 - Feat. Julia Stiles - WIGS. June 11, 2012 – via YouTube.
  39. ^ Healey, Matthew (July 16, 2010). "Next Big Thing for the Last Big Thing". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  40. ^ Pianin, Alix (March 4, 2010). "Julia Stiles, CC '05, alumni receive John Jay Awards". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  41. ^ "Actress Julia Stiles Builds in Costa Rica". Habitat for Humanity. May 22, 2000. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  42. ^ Julia Stiles visits children in detention. Amnesty International. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  43. ^ On the Front Lines. Amnesty International. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  44. ^ a b "Julia Stiles Interview". TalkTalk. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  45. ^ Stiles, Julia (April 17, 2009). "Making New Memories". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  46. ^ "Actress Julia throws first pitch". China Daily. Reuters. May 30, 2006. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  47. ^ "Puck's Friday Happy Hour: Julia Stiles Yankette Edition". The Yanks Are Coming. March 4, 2011. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
  48. ^ "Julia Stiles Engaged to Preston J. Cook : People.com". PEOPLE.com.
  49. ^ "Hallmark Hall of Fame Presents The Makeover" (Press release). Hallmark Cards. December 26, 2012. Archived from the original on January 27, 2012.
Listen to this article
(2 parts, 15 minutes)
  2. Part 2
Spoken Wikipedia icon
These audio files were created from a revision of this article dated
Error: no date provided
, and do not reflect subsequent edits.
(Audio help · More spoken articles)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Julia_Stiles&oldid=736642860"