Why Julia Stiles Had "Out of Body Experience" on DWTS Premiere
DWTS' Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa React to Juilliard's "Shady" Post About Her (Exclusive)
Julia Stiles saved her worries for after the ballroom.
Following her quickstep to Dolly Parton's "9 to 5” on night two of the Dancing With the Stars premiere, the Save the Last Dance actress shared how she really felt hitting the dance floor for the first time.
“Honestly, it was a little bit of an out of body experience,” Stiles exclusively told E! News’ Will Marfuggi after the Sept. 16 episode alongside her partner Ezra Sosa. “So, I'm just like, ‘What happened?’ And you spend so much time trying to be present, present, present. So now I'm here. I don't really remember what happened.”
But is she relieved the first dance is over?
“No, because relieved means that I was anticipating something bad happening,” Stiles explained. “I was trying to push those thoughts out of my head.”
Indeed, the 45-year-old admitted that she was ruminating on the performance long before she took her first spin in the ballroom—even losing sleep over it.
“I've been thinking [about it] for weeks,” Stiles shared, “barely sleeping at night because you're like, ‘Am I asleep? I'm still thinking about this dance.’”
However, when the Bourne Identity star took the dance floor, her worries were out of mind as she just focused on her partner.
“By the time we got to today,” she told Sosa, “I was just looking at you.”
And the pair had much to be excited as they scored an 18 out of 30 points, showing that Stiles is on her way to proving she has the dancing skills to live up to her legacy for her role as a hip hop-loving ballerina in the 2011 romance film Save the Last Dance.
LISA O'CONNOR / AFP via Getty Images
But she has another form of motivation to fuel her.
After all, during the DWTS premiere, the 10 Things I Hate About You actress admitted that Andy Cohen’s past remark that she’s “not the greatest dancer on the planet” is “imprinted in my brain.”
"We're gonna win the Mirrorball,” Stiles told Sosa in rehearsal footage, “sit on Andy's couch and be like, ‘Hey.’”
And following her performance, judge Derek Hough shared that they’re on their way, telling Stiles and Sosa, “Andy Cohen, you can eat it!”
Until the dynamic duo gets back in the groove again next week—as they were saved following week one’s double elimination—keep reading to see who Stiles and Sosa are competing against for the Mirrorball Trophy…
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The Love Island UK alum is hoping her love for DWTS doesn't betray her as she manifested this experience.
"I have a vision board and I redo it every year," she told E! News in May. "This year is the first year that I stayed at home by myself on New Year's Eve. I did not go out at all. I made myself a bowl of pasta and a glass of red wine and I redid my vision board for the year. Dancing With the Stars was already on it from the year before. However, I added five more Dancing With the Stars on the board."
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