There’s very little territory that Julia Stiles hasn’t covered. Big screen, small screen, Broadway, Off-Broadway. Shakespeare, dance-offs, action films like the Bourne series, TV dramas like Dexter, and recently the Oscar winner Silver Linings Playbook. And now with Blue, Stiles has taken on a new genre and a new medium, starring as a call girl in the web series produced by the YouTube channel Wigs. New episodes of the show are coming soon. We recently called up Stiles to talk about the world of escorting and a few other things, including trophy wives, aromatherapy, and avoiding the pole.
MARK SVARTZ: So let’s talk about the oldest profession. Farmers must be bummed they never copyrighted that title.
JULIA STILES: I was thinking the same thing. It seems deceptive to call it the oldest profession. It also seems like somewhat of a copout. Calling it the oldest profession makes it okay, because it’s old?
MS: It doesn’t necessarily make it okay, but it does make it seem like it’s vital for society. Though I’m sure it’s tougher to play than, say, a farmer.
JS: I’ve always been a little reluctant to play a call girl. Even though I’m very intrigued and fascinated by that subject matter, maybe I was too shy or scared. But I really love the way director Rodrigo Garcia handled it, showing the girl from all angles so she’s not just defined by this job. Have you ever slept with a prostitute?
Next week, Julia Stiles arrives at the Los Angeles Film Festival for the premiere of It’s a Disaster, Todd Berger’s witty end-of-the-world comedy about four couples who meet for Sunday brunch only to realize that the apocalypse is near. Forced to live out their last moments together, the quartet of quirky couples—including the brilliant duo of Stiles and David Cross, who plays her recent, online-acquired beau—transition through the various stages of grief while navigating their awkward relationship dynamics, rationing their alcohol, and making the odd interpersonal discovery along the way.
On Thursday, Stiles phoned VF.com and told us about her film, putting both The Bell Jar and the Bourne series behind her, and her very first onscreen job, playing a young Cyndi Lauper.
Julie Miller: I loved the concept in It’s a Disaster that your character is on one of her first dates with David Cross’s character and is more concerned about how the date is going than the impending apocalypse.
Julia Stiles: Yeah, absolutely. And she’s the one with the most delayed reaction. The way that she deals with disaster is by focusing on her date and making sure that her friends admit that she is right.
How are you when it comes to crisis management?
Sometimes I’m really good in a crisis, when it involves taking care of another person. But when it involves big ideas about what is going on in the world, I tend to focus on minutia as well. It’s a weird coping mechanism. Without getting morbid, I’ve been in a situation where I hear about something dangerous going on in the world. If it’s not right in front of my face, I get really concerned about running errands or doing whatever I have to. One of the things that Todd said when we started shooting was that he wanted each character to represent a different stage of grief. So one character is denial, anger, acceptance, and so on.
I missed so much news guys, I am so sorry. Anyway, on December 9 Julia made an appearance on Rachael Ray to promote Dexter. Go to RachelRayshow.com to check out a clip. They talk a bit about Julia’s Cosmopolitan cover (which is amazing, I will make an update of that later).
Blue (2012)
