Tourist time 

Tim Blake Nelson's O costar Julia Stiles is also coming to the Toronto filmfest, in her case for the edgy drama The Business Of Strangers, in which she costars with Stockard Channing. Stiles was here last year with the David Mamet comedy State And Main. She saw the inside of hotels, limos and the airport and went away frustrated.

"I was there but I didn't really get to see Toronto and I didn't get to see any other films," she tells The Sun. "This time, I just hope I get to enjoy it more and see it (the festival) in the context of other films in the festival. Because festivals have such a tendency to become press free-for-alls and they have the actors come in for two seconds, give them soundbites and leave.

"But I think the real point of festivals is to show good movies and I would like to go and see some good movies."

The Business Of Strangers is the off-kilter story of a senior business executive, played by Channing, and a sarcastic young assistant, played by Stiles, who use a night together in an airport hotel to indulge in some harrowing games-playing.

"Because it takes place in one night and in this hotel room, you really just get down to the themes we are trying to develop and to our two characters," says Stiles. "It was really a lot of fun to shoot. And there is a lot of dry comedy in it, although it's not a comedy. It's interesting."

Article by Bruce Kirkland
Originally published in the September 4, 2001 issue of the Toronto Sun