Julia Stiles on Heath Ledger, dance and Orphan: First Kill

There’s a movie Julia Stiles wishes she could do over, but it’s not 10 Things I Hate About You. At the time, she didn’t know how special that summer with Heath Ledger would be.

EXCLUSIVE: It’s no mistake that the career of Julia Stiles began with a Last Dance and is book-ended by a First Kill.

In front of a camera for 30 years, the Hollywood veteran is now markedly more intentional than that 12-year-old girl just having fun in a Cindy Lauper music video.

In three decades since, her two breakout films remain two of her most valuable life lessons that led to her latest role in Orphan: First Kill, and her upcoming feature-length directorial debut.

“I would love a do-over on all that dance training,” Stiles told News Corp Australia.

While she shot to fame in 10 Things I Hate About You, it’s not that movie’s iconic tabletop dance scene, when she put her back into it for Ice Cube’s You Can Do It, that Stiles would love another spin at.

Unknown to her at the time, that summer filming alongside Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a rare moment on a movie set.

But there’s one thing she saw in Ledger that gave a glimpse at the Australian actor’s future accomplishments, and that she’s never forgotten.

“He was a very magnetic presence on set, and he was like this force,” Stiles remembered.

Heath Ledger with Julia Stiles in scene from film 10 Things I Hate About You. Picture: Supplied

“He had a zest for life and just was like always, he was never checked out. He was always totally engaged with everybody. Really interesting, remarkable person and actor.”

Ledger went on to win an Oscar for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight, an iconic performance among a career of iconic roles in Brokeback Mountain, Ned Kelly, Monster’s Ball, The Patriot,and Two Hands.

“It’s a shame because we would have, you know, we would have been able to see him do more incredible work had he not passed away,” Stiles said.

“That summer was very, very special and ultimately rare because we were all actors on that, it was kind of their first.

“We jumped in and we were all so open-hearted and not self-conscious, which I learned later doesn’t always happen on a set. It was a really special time.”

Heath Ledger in Two Hands. Picture: Supplied

Heath Ledger arrives for the premiere of his film 'Candy' in New York in 2006. .

It was the box office blockbuster Save the Last Dance two years later that cemented Stiles’s status as an emerging leading actor, and it’s that role she would love a do-over on today.

Her character, an aspiring ballet dancer from the suburbs of Chicago with dreams of getting into Julliard, shocks dance judges by injecting hip hop moves into a classical routine.

While it lives on in TikTok infamy 20 years later as a meme-worthy scene, it’s a far cry from the projects Stiles is working on today.

“I think I’m a lot more thoughtful about what I do now. When I was younger and just starting out first … you just want to get hired,” Stiles said.

“At that time I was just kind of just living life and going like, ‘yeah, I’d like to work with that person, I’d like to go to this country now’.”

Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick In Save The Last Dance. Picture: Supplied

Save The Last Dance. Picture: Supplied

“I’m a lot more thoughtful about the choices that I make, and I often think about, how do I want to spend my days, and who do I want to go to work with every day, what’s going to be the atmosphere.”

It’s no mistake, then, that the atmosphere of Orphan: First Killis so different from Save the Last Dance. Stiles plays Tricia in the sequel to the 2009 hit, which starred Isabelle Fuhrman as the murderous title character, Esther.

The big twist in the original film, starring Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard, is that Esther is a full-grown woman who disguises herself as a child thanks to a condition that stunts her growth. First Kill plays with that for a twist of its own.

“When I read the script, I got to the twist and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s so clever’,” Stiles said.

“There’s a sense of humour to Orphan: First Kill,” she added.

“Because of the reveal in the first movie, is that she’s tricking everyone, now we get to watch that play out and it’s kind of this like weird antihero that we’re watching. And we’re in on the joke, we’re in on the secret”.

Julia Stiles as Tricia in Orphan: First Kill. Picture: Supplied

After early career success with major studio hits like the Bournefranchise, Stiles pivoted into a college degree in English Literature at Columbia University.

She graduated in 2005, and has said about that time that she wanted to continue studying so she could go toe-to-toe in the halls of power with studio producers and executives.

It paid off, and Stiles is now working on her first feature-length directorial debut she’s about to start filming.

Vera Farmiga and Isabelle Fuhrman in a scene from the first Orphanfilm.

“That is scary but also really exciting for me,” Stiles said.

“When you collaborate with a good director, that is really, really satisfying, but it doesn’t always work that way,” she added.

“A lot of times you’re just there executing somebody else’s vision or taking notes and hitting your mark and saying your lines.

“And for me, being a director is kind of being more in charge and creating and creating the movie from start to finish. It’s your vision that everybody else is trying to execute.”

At 41, Stiles the director is a world apart from the 17-year-old aspiring ballet dancer she played in Save the Last Dance, so don’t expect that “do-over” in a sequel to one of her biggest box office hits anytime soon.

“I don’t think I could do what Isabelle did in Orphan, which is I wouldn’t be able to recreate my high school self,” Stiles said.

“If they’re grown-ups at this point, maybe, you know, I don’t know. Or maybe somebody else will be in it and they can do a sequel and it’ll have a different cast.”

Sure, maybe. Or, better yet, how about she gets that “do over” by directing the sequel, instead? Long pause, wheels turn …

“Oh, that’s interesting,” Stiles said, savouring the next dance.

Orphan: First Kill only in cinemas from September 1.

Originally published as Julia Stiles on Heath Ledger, dance and Orphan: First Kill