Julia Stiles
Appearances
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
Oh, welcome to the show. Oh my God, it is so exciting. Thank God for this show. You guys are great, and I'm so excited to be here.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
Yeah, I mean, I have been wanting to direct for a really long time, kind of just couldn't find the right story. And I... It was about five years ago during the pandemic that one of the actresses in the movie sent me this book. Actually, she slid into my DMs on Instagram and was like, I heard you're interested in directing, and what about Rene Carlino's book?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
Then she went through my agent and sent me a letter, and I read the book, and I loved it. I had a visceral reaction to it. I laughed. I cried. I laughed through my tears, like that good cry that makes you feel happy at the end of it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
And I thought, this is the story that I want to tell. And that was the catalyst for making me go, okay, now's the time. I mean, I've been acting for a long time and I've been on lots of film sets. So it finally felt like, okay, now I want to be in the driver's seat. Is that okay? Can I do that? Okay. And I'm so excited to be here. I can't even believe that.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
I have to say, like, because I've been doing a lot of promotion for the movie, and I have to just, like, I can't contain my excitement. It took us five years to get the movie adapted, financed, cast, into production. We were about to go and start shooting, and then the SAG strike happened. We finally made the movie, and I love this movie so much, and I just can't believe that I'm here. Oh.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
I mean, I definitely, my radar for keeping a movie like this from being saccharine or corny, my radar was up for that. I tried to keep it as grounded and real as possible. But the thing that struck me, even initially about the book, is that the main characters are very young, but their love story is so much more mature and touches on things that are a lot deeper.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
You know, most movies that are about young romance are... mostly focused on, like, love at first sight or the initial stages of a relationship, you know, having a crush on someone. And this one, they play this game with each other where the girl will tell him the story of their lifelong love affair together as though they're an older couple looking back on a lifetime of memories together.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
So it brings up a lot of, you know, more universal kind of deeper issues like mortality and how we should be so lucky to create a lifetime of memories with someone and connect with them and have a life together.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
It's a pretty good reason. He's in the hospital. Uh-huh.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
And he's very sick. Yeah. I mean, I think that gets a pass.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
You never know. Have you ever been ghosted? I think that I'm the kind of person that it would be impossible to ghost me because if you don't respond to my text messages, I will not stop texting you until you do. And they'll get longer. They'll be like paragraphs of like, I know you can hear me and this is how I feel about it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
Yes, I realized pretty quickly on set. I was like, I can do this because you have to operate. I have three little kids, and you have to operate with very little sleep. You have to multitask. You have to think 10 steps ahead, but also be in the present moment, manage people's hunger levels. Like, let's take a snack break.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
And that's not to say that actors and crew members are like little kids, but I just mean you have to be looking out for everybody's needs.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
Totally. I mean, first of all, because I'm like, I was, when I explained to people that I met Isabel playing her mother, I'm like, whatever. She was pretending to be a little girl. Yes. But, yeah, it was a very dark horror movie. And I played a sociopath. Spoiler alert. But we had a lot more fun on Wish You Were Here.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
There's a lot of moments of levity and silliness to kind of suck you in before the tragedy happens.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
Vanessa Carlton? Yeah, I loved, loved, loved putting music to this film. And we sourced a lot of existing songs that I had a playlist that we put in. But Vanessa and I have known each other since high school. And I know that we've stayed friends through all different walks of life. Like we really, when A Thousand Miles came out, and it was around the same time that
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
I think 10 Things I Hate About You came out. And so we were both having success in our careers and kind of like, what is this thing that we've wanted for so long, but it's kind of scary and not many people understand it. And then, you know, dating in our 20s and having families. And I know that she had always, and career ups and downs, she had wanted to score a film for a really long time.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
This is the first film that she's done. So of course, when I had the opportunity, I reached out to her and she wrote like beautiful, beautiful music with her husband, John McCauley, who is from the band Deer Tick. And the combination of the two of them is like, you know, they're a couple writing music for a movie about a couple.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
And he's got like this grovelly, you know, kind of masculine musical vibe. And she's got her piano, amazing piano composition. I feel so lucky.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
Not because I was doing anything that would have been worthy of posting. It's just because I would have been so tortured. Like, even now, I'm trying to navigate that world. And I literally spent, like, two hours yesterday posting and then deleting and then reposting and then second-guessing my caption. And it was all because the alignment of a picture wasn't right.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover, Ko$ta Doin' Business | Julia Stiles
Like, the nerd in me as a grown-up is so tortured that I'm glad that when I was younger, I didn't have to deal with that.