“That’s what you want as a performer is to be able to tell stories and make movies that people care about and have a life many years later,” the actress tells TooFab, also revealing if she’ll let her kids watch the 1999 teen romcom someday.
“I want you, I need you, oh baby, oh baby!”
If you’re a millennial, odds are you know that quote is from 10 Things I Hate About You. While the film was released in 1999, it still holds up today, and remains beloved by fans — something for which star Julia Stiles is beyond “grateful.”
While promoting her new film Chosen Family with TooFab, the actress reflected on the film’s legacy more than 25 years after it was released.
“I am so happy and grateful for the film’s continued life and that it still means something to people because that’s what you want as a performer,” Stiles said. “And I remember when I first read the script, I was so excited about the opportunity to play Kat because it was so refreshing to read a character like that. And so the movie was just a really fun, heartfelt comedy, so to be cast in it was huge.”
“But then to feel like, Oh, audiences are responding the way that I did is just very affirming,” she continued. “I mean that’s what you want as a performer is to be able to tell stories and make movies that people care about and have a life many years later.”
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The mom of three also revealed to TooFab that she plans on letting her children watch 10 Things I Hate About You, sharing that the movie will likely be the first film of hers she’ll allow them to see.
“That might be the film they’re allowed to watch sooner rather than later,” Stiles told TooFab. “Like, the Bourne movies are gonna have to wait a few years, Save the Last Dance too. They’ll probably have to wait for that because there’s some heavy subject matter in that, but 10 Things will be one of the first things that they can watch.”
Stiles shares sons Strummer, 6, and Arlo, 2, in addition to a baby born in 2023 with husband Preston Cook.
In case it’s been a minute since you’ve seen 10 Things I Hate About You — and if it has, watch it now, it’s still great — the film put a modern spin on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Long story short, Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik) isn’t allowed to date until her ill-tempered older sister Kat (Stiles) does, leading to a big ‘ol scam involving Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Heath Ledger’s characters.
Check out TooFab’s full interview with Stiles in the video, above.
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