Everything Julia Stiles has said about her time on Dancing With the Stars, as she’s eliminated
'I was just getting started'
Julia Stiles was one of the celebs performing on this season of Dancing With the Stars. Despite having some dance experience, Julia’s shared how physically and mentally demanding this journey has been. She was sadly eliminated last night alongside her pro partner Ezra Sosa, so here’s everything she’s said about her time on Dancing With the Stars season 35.
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In week two, Julia scored 16 out of 30 from the judges with her partner Ezra Sosa for their Tango to Teddy Swims’ The Door. DWTS judge Bruno Tonioli said that there were “a few stumbles” in their performance last week.
“My first-week jitters were gone, [but I’m] not feeling great, to be honest,” Julia told USA Today. “But that’s, I guess, part of the process. We’ve got to just keep fighting and keep trying and learning.”
While she’s not formally trained in dance, she did undergo extensive training for her role in the 2001 film Save the Last Dance. Before the premiere night, she opened up to Entertainment Weekly that she thinks her Save the Last Dance training might be more of a hindrance than a help.
“I think it’s a bit of a disadvantage,” she said. “To be honest, I stopped taking dance classes after that movie because people expected me to be a great dancer.”
“I love dancing at home, and part of my reason for coming on this show was to find the joy in dance again… find my confidence again,” Julia explained. So no wonder why she’s taking this low score especially hard.
Despite her being upset, she thanked Ezra for being “the best partner” and supporting her through an emotional night. Even with the low score, she’s said that her experience on the show so far has been “incredible.”
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For Dedication Night, Julia honoured her 10 Things I Hate About You co-star Heath Ledger. “I was crying in rehearsals today,” she told Variety at the InStyle Imagemaker Awards last week. She explained that she thought enough time had passed for her to feel distanced from it, but that seeing clips and images from the film and hearing both of their voices has brought back a flood of memories. She added that his memory lives on because of how incredible his performance was, and that making people feel something is exactly what performers hope for.
Sadly, Julia and Ezra were eliminated last night on Disney Week. Speaking after the elimination, Julia said: “This has been such an incredible experience just physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, all of it, so I will always have that with me. And I’m really, really glad that we were able to go out with a bang.”
She added: “Really sad because I’m going to miss seeing this guy every day.” Ezra was clearly struggling to hold it together as he replied: “I’m going to miss you too. She made me a better person. Oh, I’m going to cry. I’m going to cry.”
When asked how it felt now the news was sinking in, Julia didn’t sugarcoat it. “It sucks, huh? It’s a bummer, it’s bummer city,” she said. “I had so much fun on this show, so much fun. I loved seeing you every day; I loved working with you. I felt like I grew so much emotionally, spiritually, physically, all of it.”
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“It’s sad because I feel like I was just getting started,” she went on. “But I’m really, really glad that we had that dance. Because to me, I was able to prove something to myself that I needed to prove.”
Julia also physically pushed herself with this performance, as she’s been struggling with a rib injury this past week. Explaining what she’d been going through, Julia said: “A lot of pain. But I was able to manage the pain, and Ezra talked to me a lot about how the physical and the mental are connected.”
“So I think there was a bit of stress that was adding to it,” she said. “And so being able to find my confidence and my emotional strength helped calm my ribs down.”