Thanks to her big screen exploits – 10 Things I Hate About You, Down to You and Save the Last Dance – Julia Stiles has been somewhat typecast as the poster girl for rom-coms.
And this isn’t surprising. Many actors have fallen into this trap. Mathew McConaughey is a perfect case in point. After a slew of movies that went from entertaining (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) to disastrous (Surfer, Dude), he realised his imprudence with taking on projects and successfully changed tack with The Dallas Buyers Club, for which he won an Oscar, and the hit TV series, True Detective.
While it isn’t clear if Stiles feels the same, her critically-acclaimed performance in Dexter and now her role in the award-winning drama Blue hint at her gravitating towards more substantial material.
And it certainly doesn’t get any better than her playing a single mum, who is an accountant by day and, due to her cash-strapped existence, works as a call girl at night.
Her sheer desperation, however, doesn’t quite equip her for the realities that come with being a hooker.
On returning to the small screen and having the weight on her of being the show’s protagonist, Stiles reveals: “I feel good about it. The fortunate thing about TV is that you spend more time with the character and it awards you the opportunity to work on the role with more depth.”
The series, written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia (Mother and Child, In Treatment), also features respected names in the industry: Kathleen Quinlan, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Sarah Paulson (recently seen in American Horror Story 4) and Eric Stoltz.
What’s even more interesting is that it launched as a series on the internet à la House of Cards before it secured a more solid footing on the Lifetime Channel.
Stiles admits that she was fascinated by the script.
The 33-year-old explains: “I love the writing and thought the premise was really inter-esting. Who knew it would be a great opportunity? At first, I was a little concerned about it airing on the web because, at that point, all of that was new and unknown.”
Going on the premise, it does hint at having shades of The Client List.
Of her co-stars, she notes: “I haven’t worked with Eric before. I was a big fan, though. And he’s a delight to work with.”
Commenting on the show’s fabulous reception, she speculates: “I think people are curious about sex (laughs).”
I guess, it’s true what they say: “Sex does sell.” (pun unintended). After all, look at how many people stormed cinemas to check out the much-ado-about-nothing movie, 50 Shades of Grey.
As for her position on the ongoing trend of the small screen poaching big-screen talent, she shares: “There is a lot of great storytelling out there and for me the most important thing is good material and an interesting story. The people I have been working with inspire me and the medium, to me, doesn’t matter – whether it is the small screen, the big screen or the web. It all overlaps now anyway.”
Koulla Anastasi, director of programming of Lifetime, comments: “Blue is a compelling and captivating drama that will enhance our programming schedule on Lifetime in Africa.”
Heck, if nothing else, it will definitely titillate the audience into watching.
• Lifetime Channel’s (DStv channel 131) award-winning series, Blue, debuts on Thursday, March 19 at 8pm.