Julia Stiles interview: 'I'm lucky social media wasn't a thing when fame hit'

The ‘Riviera’ star talks about the potential for a second season of the show and reflects on her past TV and film performances

(John Wright)

Julia Stiles is the latest star to have thrown herself headfirst into television with a lead role in Sky Atlantic drama Riviera, which draws to a close tonight (17 August).

The star of such films as 10 Things I Hate About You and the Bourne franchise appears in the sun-soaked south fo France-set series from Neil Jordan (Interview with the Vampire) as Georgina Clios, an art curator who gets caught in a criminal underworld following the suspicious death of her billionaire husband in a yacht accident.

We sat down with Stiles to talk about the possibility of a second season, working with former Game of Thrones villain Iwan Rheon and the story behind the best scene in 10 Things I Hate About You.

What was it about Riviera that stood out to you?

It was definitely Neil Jordan. I didn't have all the scripts so it was a bit of a leap of faith committing to something that's going to be a lot longer. This is different to anything I've seen on TV recently and I feel like the glamorous and opulent setting [the south of France] contrasted with these people who are doing questionable things – it seemed like a perfect setting. The producers also made it clear to me that they wanted the character I play to start off naive and then quickly surprise you and make you realise that you’re underestimating her. They likened her to Michael Corleone in The Godfather in that she turns and does bad things. I thought that would be really fun to play.

Anti-heroes on television tend to be overwhelmingly male. Your character is one of the first female ones.

Absolutely. To be the lead in this show and to be bad was very exciting. I think there is still this weird stigma: producers are worried they’re going to lose the audience if a woman becomes unsympathetic. There are tons of anti-hero male characters. I was relieved when the people behind the show really supported us in creating Georgina and I think if we have a second season we’ll do that even more because of how we end season one. So much happens that it opens up a lot of opportunities for her to become more powerful.

Do you find not knowing what's coming next in the show exciting or infuriating?

I had moments where I was really vocal about wanting to change certain things or needing to know where a certain story was going. But ultimately, the showrunners and producers were open to hearing my input. I also felt like that creates an opportunity to influence and craft a story so, by the end, I felt more involved in a way than I normally am. Especially in a movie where stuff is already written.

Your co-star Iwan Rheon played one of the most fearsome villains [Ramsay Bolton] in ‘Game of Thrones’.

That's what I hear! I decided not to watch him in Game of Thrones because, first of all, the entire world knows him from that and I could see he might like a break from it. I also didn't want it to colour our interactions. The story between the two of us in Riviera is so delicate. [Knowing him as Ramsay Bolton] would have got in the way.

Why do you think your earlier film credits, ‘10 Things I Hate About You’, ‘Down To You’ and ‘Save the Last Dance’, still resonate with audiences?

I don’t know but I'm very happy when people tell me they do. It’s nice. I can see with 10 Things... it was the first time there was an angsty female lead in one of those movies.

Would you be unhappy if Hollywood tried remaking it?

No, no, because they’re never as good as the original.

What's your memory of the day you filmed the “You're Just Too Good To Be True” scene with Heath Ledger?

I was floored by Heath running up and down those steps and singing in this voice that he had really recorded! You don't get rehearsals in a movie, just a table read in the beginning, and they didn’t do that with the song because they had to add the music in. So I was totally surprised. What a voice.

What are your memories of your time on ‘Dexter’?

I loved working on that show and I really like what they wrote for me. It definitely opened my eyes to the possibility of working in television more because before that, I was kind of afraid. That was when cable was just becoming really good, so before that, I had this fear of television. Working on Dexter, and certainly working on Riviera, you can invest in a character for a good amount of time. If the writing is good it can be great. That's always the question: is the writing going to be good enough for a long period of time?

What current shows do you think showcase top writing?

There's a show that I absolutely loved that’s not very well know in the States – Fleabag. I adore that show. I thought it was so charming and simple and also sad and, at times, dark – so creative. It was really good to see [creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge] had written it too. I really want them to make a second series. I did go back and watch House of Cards again but it's hard to watch because it seems so timely. Black Mirror is a good one too. I'd absolutely love to be in that – it's great writing.

You became famous at a young age in Hollywood and yet you never went off the rails...

I was lucky that when I started becoming more recognisable as an actress and when fame hit, social media wasn't a big thing, if at all. It was easier to have a line between work and play. I find that with the actors I really like, you don’t know much about their off-screen personality - so you can believe in them more onscreen. If you’re getting attention from the paps, in the immediate short term people are likely to want to cast you because you're in their mind. But if you want to sustain a career for a long amount of time…

If a script came through the door tomorrow, what name would you be hoping to see attached as the director?

The guy who directed The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos. That was such an imaginative movie. Oh, and Kenneth Lonergan for very specific reasons. He allowed Casey Affleck to have that kind of performance. You have directors who by virtue don’t really know how to communicate what they want from an actor or they rely too heavily on an actor to tell a story. They make an actor show what they’re thinking or feeling. Whereas Lonergan took a brilliant piece of work and allowed Casey Affleck to be that introverted, to look down all the time.

They made a ‘10 Things I Hate About You’ TV show which ran for just one season. If you could turn any of your past films into a TV show, which would you choose?

The thing that would be the most fun to revisit – a more obscure one - is It's a Disaster (2012). It's a comedy I did with David Cross and a group of comedians so it’d be a nice thing to rehash. You could make a TV show out of the Bourne movies - I just don’t know if I’d want to be in them.

‘Riveria’ concludes its first season on Sky Atlantic tonight