Julia O'Hara Stiles (born March 28, 1981 in New York City, New York) is an American stage and film actress.
Her film career has included both commercial and critical successes, ranging from teen romantic comedies such as 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) to dark art house pictures such as The Business of Strangers (2001). She is also well known as playing the supporting character Nicky Parsons in The Bourne Series and her turn on Dexter.
Filmography
- Ghostwriter (1993-94) as Erica Dansby
- Chicago Hope (1997) as Corey Sawicki
- The Devil's Own (1997) as Bridget O'Meara
- 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) as Kat Stratford
- Hamlet (2000) as Ophelia
- State and Main (2000) as Carla
- Save the Last Dance (2001) as Sara
- Saturday Night Live (2001) as Jenna Bush (uncredited)
- "O" (2001) as Desi Brable
- The Bourne Series as Nicole "Nicky" Parsons
- The Bourne Identity (2002)
- The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
- Jason Bourne (2016)
- The Bourne Stuntacular (2020)
- A Guy Thing (2003) as Becky
- Mona Lisa Smile (2003) as Joan Brandwyn
- The Prince & Me (2004) as Paige Morgan
- The Omen (2006) as Katherine Torno
- Dexter (2010) as Lumen Ann Pierce
- It's a Disaster! (2012) as Tracy
- Silver Linings Playbook (2012) as Veronica
- The Mindy Project (2014-15) as Jessica Lieberstein
- Hustlers (2019) as Elizabeth
- Dragons: The Nine Realms (2021-present) as Olivia Kullersen (voice)
- Orphan: First Kill (2022) as Tricia Albright
Tropes associated with her:
- Career Resurrection: As noted below, she vanished from the limelight for ages. But she gradually won critics back with her Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated role on Dexter, being a
One-Scene Wonder in the smash hit Silver Linings Playbook and reprising her role as Nicky Parsons in Jason Bourne. - Casting Gag: She's dated a Danish prince in both Hamlet and The Prince & Me.
- Creator Breakdown: Confessed that this happened while filming Dexter, where some of the things her character did made it difficult for her to sleep.
- Dawson Casting:
- Averted with Kat Stratford of Ten Things I Hate About You, as Julia was only eighteen. It was the same with O as she was eighteen when the scenes were filmed, but twenty when the movie was finally released.
- She did however play a teenager in State and Main when she was twenty.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Dyed her hair a lighter shade of blonde for Mona Lisa Smile.
- Hollywood Hype Machine: Julia was poised to become a superstar in the 2000s after the successes of Ten Things I Hate About You and Save the Last Dance, as well as her association with The Bourne Identity and its sequels. But a series of questionable projects - The Prince & Me, A Guy Thing and the remake of The Omen - caused critics to sour towards her and she found herself disappearing from the spotlight.
- Romance on the Set: She and her 10 Things I Hate About You co-star Heath Ledger were briefly involved.
- Star-Making Role: 10 Things I Hate About You's success turned her into a star.
- Typecasting: She's done three movies where she plays a modernized Shakespearian heroine:
- 10 Things I Hate About You from The Taming of the Shrew.
- "O" from Othello.
- Hamlet set in modern New York City.
- She also got to play Viola in Twelfth Night.
- What Could Have Been: She held the rights to adapt The Bell Jar for years but couldn't get the script right, and eventually gave up on the project.
