Julia Stiles (Actor)

"Being an actor is looked at like a prolonged game of dress-up. America puts movie stars on pedestals. In college, it's the flip side. I sometimes have to justify my job to my professors because they're focused on intellect and ideas." - Stiles to People magazine, April 6, 2004

"I always loved how people like Jon Voight and Laurence Olivier shocked you every time they came on-screen. They were so different each time. That's what I hope to do with acting - be the chameleon and not get stuck in a type." - Stiles quoted in Vanity Fair magazine, August 1998

"I tend to gravitate toward the more powerful roles. As opposed to the doe-eyed girl who bats her eyelashes and runs around in towels, you now what I mean? Because that kind of makes me want to vomit." - Stiles quoted in Movieline magazine, September 1998

"She's not your typical cheesecake pinup girl. She's beautiful and talented and has the mouth of a truck driver when necessary." - Selma Blair on Stiles to Us Weekly, Jan. 20, 2003

In the January 2004 issue of Marie Claire magazine, Stiles was featured on a trip to see conditions at the Berks County Youth Center in Leesport, Pennsylvania.

Julia Stiles on the fear that taking a career break to attend Columbia University will stall her career to the London Times (March 29, 2001): "I definitely worry about that. I think about it all the time because that's the way Hollywood thinks. It's all about momentum and keeping your name out there, and college certainly takes you away from that. But, if I look at it in the longer term, it's so worthwhile. Acting is a wonderful forum to express yourself, but there are things I want to study that you can't learn on a film set."

Stiles has also worked for Habitat for Humanity, building housing in Costa Rica, and has worked with Amnesty International to try to raise awareness of the harsh conditions of immigration detention of unaccompanied juveniles.

Stiles is an ex-vegan. She gave up veganism after she developed anemia and found it difficult to get proper nutrition while traveling.

Stiles on her many Shakespeare roles: "I really like Shakespeare a lot. The characters that he writes for females, I think, are really great and a lot more compelling than what modern writers write, which is weird because they didn't have actresses then." - Stiles to the Daily News, April 12, 1999