Transcript 

Dave: Our next guest is a talented actress starring in a new film, The Prince & Me, opens April 2nd, the lovely Julia Stiles everybody!

Dave: You look lovely as always.

Julia: Thank you, well last time I was on here you made fun of what I was wearing so...

D: What were you wearing?

J: Jeans and a man's shirt and you said I looked like I was going camping. So I wore a dress for you.

D: Well you look fantastic.

J: Thank you very much.

D: Well I bet you looked fantastic last time too. I don't imagine there's anything you could wear in which you don't look fantastic.

J: Oh stop.

D: Now, um, you're still in school, you're not in school?

J: I have a year left of school.

D: Oh so you're actually going to finish and get a degree and stuff?

J: Yes, yes.

D: Good for you. What's it like when you go to college and you're a big movie star and stuff like that? Do people bother you, do they leave you alone, are they nice to you?

J: No, no, they're very nice to me, there are a lot of really accomplished kids at Columbia so I don't think they really care that much that I'm a movie star.

D: I see, and are you getting good grades?

J: Um... in most of my classes... I'm an English major so I took all my English classes early, so I'm almost done with that, but we have all these core requirements, like Science, which I'm really not good at... and the whole right and wrong answer thing, I kinda have a problem with. No, I mean like as an English major you can argue your way through anything really.

D: Sure.

J: But if you're in Science class and you wanna say that A squared plus B squared does not equal C squared, they will mark you wrong.

D: Now I don't wanna be the voice of doom but because of this stated weakness in science and maybe math as well, you have trouble with math?

J: Numbers, I, completely [waves hand over head].

D: Now there's no chance that you'll flunk out is there?

J: No! Oh no! I mean I've tried each semester, I've tried to take a science class and end up having to drop it because I know that I'm going to fail. I think I'll get around it somehow.

D: Sooner or later they'll probably just give it to you after awhile..

J: Yea, Oh, just graduate already!

D: That's nice though, that you're continuing education, because the truth is you don't need it you're like a big star.

J: [plugs ears] I can't hear you, I can't hear you!

D: Umm.

J: Don't tell me that!

[laughter]

D: You weren't in one of those Dirty Dancing movies were you?

J: First of all, I can't believe that you haven't seen the first Dirty Dancing. That was like, I grew up on that movie!

D: What's the matter with me?!

J: I know that movie by heart, like when Jennifer Gray says, "I'm afraid of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life, the way I feel when I'm with you!"

[Applause]

J: I mean, right?

D: Wow!

D: But now, in the dirty, when the kids are dirty dancing, is the next step there... what is the next step beyond the dirty dancing? What happens after? They just go home and shower off? Or does it lead to something else?

J: I think it leads to winning the "Pichanga" contest or whatever.

D: What were you doing in Germany, working there? I guess you were probably working there.

J: yea, I spent two months in Berlin, working on the Bourne Supremacy which is the sequel to the Bourne Identity.

D: You and Matt Damon?

J: Me, Matt Damon and Joan Allen is the head of the C.I.A. operation.

D: Did you like Berlin, I've never been there? Was it fascinating, interesting?

J: It was fascinating, um, I'm very glad I went, I learned a lot... and by the end, the honeymoon was kinda over.

D: Whaddya mean by that?

J: Well, I met a lot of really nice German people on the crew. But I felt like when I went out and met strangers there was a lot of hostility of me being an outsider. Somebody's going to get mad at me, but, um, strangers, there's the language barrier. I felt a little bit like I was living in Lost in Translation. Okay, I went to, um, you know, at the hotel, they have a gym and a sauna. The first thing I had to get used to is they're naked everywhere, I mean like-

D: Really? The Germans are naked everywhere?

J: Well, in the saunas, like men and women, totally naked, totally free with it and I'm puritanical American. But, like, for instance, one time in the locker room-

D: What's the name of the hotel? Paul and I have a place in Berlin that we go and...

J: No, I'm saying naked German men! No, I went into a locker room and this older woman, a frau, I would like to call her, um, completely buck naked, started screaming at me and she was like, "Blakadhkkishishs," in German, and I didn't understand what she was saying and she was, completely naked. I don't know if you caught that part. And so I said, [German], which means, "I don't speak German", you know, I was trying to be really cute. And so she started making fun of me and going, [German] for "I don't speak German, repeated," and I felt that was so obnoxious, so I pulled out my best German and I told her, [German] and [insert favorite German expletive here]", which means, "Have a nice day, [insert favorite English expletive here]".

D: Wow.

J: You're going to have to bleep that out [they did].

D: What was at the core of this; what was she upset about; why was she upset at you, for heaven's sake?

J: She was-

D: What had you done to provoke this, or, in her mind, provoke it?

J: It turned out that she was mad that I didn't close the door, but I didn't understand 'cause they're naked everywhere!

D: Wow.

J: Yea.

D: Yea.

J: Yea.

D: Now, you say this is an isolated occurrence or you found that people everywhere were mad at you?

J: Well, I don't want to generalize about all Germans, obviously, because there were a lot of really nice people, but I just felt like, uh, I felt like, yea, I got yelled at a lot. Maybe they just didn't like me, I don't know.

D: Mmhmm. Now this movie that you made, I came to learn that this is actually sort of like a true story; a version of this has actually happened, is that correct?

J: Oh yea, well, uh, it's a-

D: The new movie, we're talking about-

J: The Prince and Me?

D: Yea.

J: It's a love story about a guy who's the crown prince of Denmark and he comes, he's really afraid of having to take on the responsibility of becoming the King, so he comes to the University of Wisconsin and tries to live in cognito, but the real Prince of Denmark, he went to... Harvard, I think, and now he's marrying an Australian lawyer who's not of royal blood.

D: So, is the script, is it written with that in mind or is it just coincidence here?

J: Um, sort of, I mean, it was sort of inspired by Prince William and also the Prince of Denmark, just our sort of curiosity about royalty in general.

D: And where did you shoot this movie?

J: In Prague.

D: Oh, really, now what was that like, I understand it's beautiful.

J: Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.

D: Ancient city.

J: Yea, I mean buildings from, like, the 14th century, it's unbelievable.

D: And how were you treated there?

J: Wonderfully.

D: Mmhmm..

J: And I even learned some Czech!

D: Let's hear a little!

J: Umm, [Czech], which means "how are you", um, [Czech], I am good. Uh, [Czech] is good evening, uh, what else... I think that was about it!

[audience laughs, then applauds]

D: Pretty good.

D: I've paid money to have old naked German woman.

J: Really?

D: I remember a thing earlier, yea, that happened a long time ago.

J: Hmm...

D: Um, so, anyway, now you were in Prague, how long were you there?

J: I was there the whole summer.

D: Yea?

J: Yea.

D: And the food was good?

J: Um, it's fine, I feel like you could get a lot of sauer kraut, you know, sort of what you would stereotypically think of, potatoes...

D: But I'm telling you, sauer kraut, I mean it's fantastic, isn't it?

J: I didn't try it, actually. I was very daring. I did try the "vicewerhst" in Germany!

D: "Vicewerhst", what is that?

J: "Vicewerhst" is a white sausage but it's like a Bavarian delicacy and that was the last time I've ever had sausage... oh, they're going to hate me! I'm going to have a bunch of German people hating me now!

D: No! hee hee. You're not the first.

J: Oh, god.

D: Um...

[great audience applause and laughter]

D: The white sausage, is that that thing they make only once a year in Spring? Isn't it, and it's supposed to be a real Bavarian treat?

J: Wow, I did not know that.

D: Yea.

J: But that's really impressive that you do know that.

D: And you don't find it tasty?

J: Um, it was sweet and, yea, not my cup of tea.

D: Well, you're not supposed to be drinking tea, you're supposed to be drinking beer!

Did you have beer? The beer is phenomenal over there.

J: Yea, the beer is good.

D: Oh, man, it's just like, that's the real thing there. Uh, well, let's see a clip of the movie and tell folks what we're going to look at... and it also shot in Toronto, part was shot in Toronto?

J: The American part was in Toronto.

[A little audience applause]

D: You don't win anything! You know what we are going to see here, Julia?

J: Um, yea, this is a scene where, so the Prince is now sort of in cognito at the University of Wisconsin, and he meets me and I'm, uh, not charmed by him at all and I think he's kind of a spoiled brat, and this is a fight we have about, um, him being irresponsible.

D: Did you mention who plays the prince?

J: An actor named Luke Mably, he's British.

D: Luke Mably done any other things we know?

J: 28 Days Later; he was one of the really bad soldiers in 28 Days Later and he's coming out with more movies.

D: Okay.

J: It's The Prince & Me, it opens April 2nd, take a look.

[Clip]

D: Yea, there's The Prince & Me. Looks like a very fun kind of perfect sort of romantic drama, no comedy.

J: It's very romantic, it's like a love story.

D: That's what it is.

J: Yea.

D: Well, you're perfect for that.

J: Oh!

D: Always a pleasure.

J: Such a pleasure.

D: Thank you very much for being here, the beautiful Julia Stiles! We'll be right back.

Originally aired on March 2, 2004 - Late Show with David Letterman