Oleanna Star Julia Stiles Gets Her Rage On

Blonde, tall and poised, Julia Stiles is the epitome of cool elegance. You wouldn’t think of the Oleanna star as someone with her face screwed up into a mask of crimson rage. Yet in her spare dressing room at the Golden Theatre, the actress who is known for such wide-ranging screen work as 10 Things I Hate About You, Hamlet, Save the Last Dance and the Bourne films, has a photo tacked on her door. It’s a close-up of Serena Williams during her recent vitriolic outburst at a lineswoman during the U.S. Open. “She’s my inspiration,” Stiles says with a laugh about how the photo is informing her portrayal of Carol, a misunderstood college student with a roiling anger beneath her composed exterior. Stiles sat down with Broadway.com to discuss the provocative play (in which she stars opposite Bill Pullman), her inventive personal blog and the woman behind her love of the stage.

Nearly every article about you quotes a review in which you were called “the thinking teenager’s movie goddess.” Do you have a response to that? It’s truly everywhere.
Goddess is a little extreme. That’s hyperbole. It makes me a little uncomfortable, but at least it’s complimentary. You could be called worse things, so I won’t complain about that one

You have an irreverent personal blog. Why did you decide to start it?
Two reasons: One was that in between jobs, I would have time off. My musician friends could always practice what they loved doing, but I can’t go on a street corner and start reciting a monologue. Acting is very collaborative and you always need other people with you—mainly an audience. So I decided it would be really fun to have an outlet to make little movies and practice editing and all that stuff. It’s nice to have a way to express myself to anyone who wants to listen without a middle man. I guess I’d gotten a little frustrated at times feeling misquoted or misrepresented. It’s just a nice little outlet.

It's interesting that the blog is out there, because you seem like the master of flying under the radar despite your big movie career. Some actors can’t make a move without attracting tabloid attention.
Not everyone wants to fly under the radar. I guess it’s just the way that I want to conduct my life. Making the web video or [short film] Raving and the stuff that’s on my blog is more for my own experimentation. It’s kind of like a sketch pad. It takes the pressure off if you’re not broadcasting it.

I think a lot of public figures are enjoying Twitter and blogs because there is no filter.
Right. But at the same time, I was reluctant for a long time because I thought it could be narcissistic—or it could be just boring.

You did Oleanna in London in 2005 opposite Aaron Eckhart. Why did you want to revisit the role?
I thought about that a lot. It’s really two reasons. I feel like the play stuck with me as something really powerful, but then I also felt like I didn’t quite get it right in London. Not that there’s a right and a wrong; I just wanted to revisit it. I felt like after graduating from college, the emphasis on the criticism of higher education resonated more with me.

You were in college when you did the previous production?
When I did it in London, I was in college [at Columbia University]. I was very much like the good student who doesn’t question why I’m there. I think I politicized the play too much. In order to compensate for what Carol does in the play—and the strong reaction that the audience has to her—I would always try to show that she’s really a nice person. I was fighting against the play. What I was really excited with this production was [the opportunity] to embrace what the play calls for. I felt like I could go deeper with it. I also was curious what would happen playing opposite a different actor. There’re so many amazing lines in the play. It just stuck with me.

Anything in particular?
“We can only interpret the behavior of others through the screens we create.” It applies to the audience. When I hear people’s reactions to it afterwards, each person takes away a different aspect of the play. I think it has a lot to do with what their own sort of experience is or what their biases are.

You said that by the end of the London run, you were infuriated a lot. Why was that?
At the time it was infuriating because I thought that the play was very much skewed in his favor, and it is. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing now. The approach that we’ve taken, mostly because of Doug Hughes and his direction, is that this is almost like a tragedy in the classic sense. The thing that makes a character great is also their downfall. If you get away from the politics of it—like is the guy right or is the girl right—then the play can really flourish.

But can people get away from that?
Yeah, I mean, that’s the thing. I think that’s why women get really upset about it because they walk into the theater thinking I’m representing all women and he’s representing all men.

Does it bug you when people refer to this play as being about sexual harassment?
It’s not even so much really about sexual harassment. That’s an obvious sound bite. A lot of her complaint is about his failure as a teacher.

There are a lot of questions about Carol that can’t be answered. How do you deal with that when the text itself doesn’t give you much?
I think that’s part of Mamet’s trickery. If you read his book on acting, he pooh-poohs back story. [He thinks actors should] just say the lines and the only thing that’s relevant is what happens on stage. I don’t know if I totally agree with that, but what he does is give you hints about where these characters have come from without giving you too much information. It’s amazing how much that resonates. One mention of her father and the audience’s imagination can run wild.

Do you think this play is trickery in a way? Because it’s definitely designed to provoke, and it always has.
It is provocative, but I also think that it’s not cheap manipulation. The reason I was attracted to it again—and Bill has said this too—is it does get at some deep visceral thing with people. That’s a better kind of provocation. There’s a reason that it unsettles audience members and us as actors. A lot of what we discussed in rehearsals was this idea that people walk through life kind of swallowing their anger and trying to get on in the world. And to see that kind of anger and rage and vengefulness come from a young woman is unsettling for people. Whether it comes out with people saying that they hate Carol, fine—but it still gets them, for some reason. I quite can’t put my finger on why.

Is the audience distracting? There were audible gasps from the audience when I saw it.
I definitely hear a lot of things. I feel as long as [the audience is] with us, any kind of audible reaction is good. If there’s a gasp, that’s great because that means it has a lot of power. Some of the responses have been really amazing, almost like people watching TV—like they think they could talk back and I couldn’t hear them.

What did they yell?
Someone yelled, “Get over it!” during one of my speeches. And there has been clapping when it becomes violent. I believe that’s intentional on Mamet’s part. He’s exposing people—getting the prejudice out of them in what would otherwise be an unacceptable situation.

This is your Broadway debut, but you have quite a bit of stage experience.
This is the first Broadway show, which is huge. It’s a total childhood dream of mine. I did go see a lot of theater as a child. In fact, and this is so corny or whatever, that’s a picture of my grandmother. [She points to a black and white portrait on her dressing table.] Her name was Ruth Stiles. She would take me to the theater a lot.

When did you start performing? You must have been very young.
I started with a theater company called Ridge Theater. They did shows at La Mama in the Kitchen and Dream Theater. They would do two shows a year—very experimental theater—and I would have some bit part in it and eventually larger parts.

Do you remember your first role?
The first thing was called Jungle Movie. It was at One Dream Theater, and I was just the kid in the show. I had a couple scenes. It was a spoof on 1930s jungle movies.

How old were you?
Eleven? I remember, actually, I wrote 12 in my bio and the director was like, “You’re 11 years old!” And I was like, “Well, I’m turning 12 in March, so…” And then they did an opera called Photo Op at La Mama that was about these two politicians and a campaign. At the very end, they’re celebrating their win with balloons falling from the ceiling, and they take their daughter on stage. I was the kid.

So instead of going home to do your homework after school, you went to rehearsal?
Well, I’d have to do my homework and go to rehearsal, but yeah. We would have rehearsals, and I remember that all the other people in the company would go out to bars afterwards. I would have to go home and do my homework or go to sleep.

What shows that grandmother took you to had a lasting impact on you?
The first memorable night we had was seeing Janet McTeer in A Doll’s House. We were sitting in the back row. I remember her performance was so accessible, and I was impressed that she could reach the very back row!

Are you enjoying the Broadway community?
Yes! From the guy who works at the door to the electricians to the house manager, they all were here when Bill was doing The Goat. There is a real sense of camaraderie and community. Even the people who wait after the show with their Playbills; it’s nice to hear what they have to say about their experience. And it’s really genuine too, which I like.

See Julia Stiles in Oleanna at the Golden Theatre.