Bard to the bone 

Julia Stiles wins the Shakespeare trifecta. The teen actress will star in three new films based on the Bard's work.

In Hollywood, it's good to focus. Jamie Lee Curtis is a scream queen; Robert De Niro's made a career out of playing mobsters. Newcomer Julia Stiles (The '60s) has already established an intriguing specialty: Bard-for-teens films. Over the next year she'll star in three Shakespeare-in-high school adaptations, beginning with this month's Taming of the Shrew-inspired 10 Things I Hate About You.

"I didn't set out to be in three Shakespeare movies," says Stiles, 18, who'll also appear in the upcoming O, an update of Othello and Hamlet (opposite Ethan Hawke). "But just because I had done 10 Things, I wasn't going to turn down the acting experiences of my life." Besides, the scripts are better than the slasher-crazed roles offered most teen stars. "There's nothing wrong with a lot of them," she notes, "they just seem redundant." With her growing résumé, Stiles shouldn't have to resort to Scream rip-offs. "She brings depth and understanding to a part," says 10 Things director Gil Junger. "She'll have her pick of roles pretty soon."

Article by Jessica Shaw
Originally published at EW Daily - Posted on March 26, 1999