Julia Stiles is revisiting some old myths about her breakout 2001 film Save the Last Dance, revealing in a new TikTok that she relied on a body double for most of the movie’s dance sequences.
The 45-year-old actress made the admission while participating in a social media trend with her Dancing with the Stars season 35 partner, Ezra Sosa, first debunking a persistent rumour that she attended Juilliard, a misconception stemming from her role as Sara Johnson, an aspiring ballerina who moves to Chicago.
The pair clarified that Stiles “only danced for a role,” with most of the film’s more complex sequences handled by a stand-in.
Stiles, who said she hasn’t danced since making the film, joked that she and Sosa are “ready to SLAY ON DWTS.”
The claim adds a new wrinkle to a story Stiles has told differently over the years.
In earlier interviews, including a 2021 Today appearance and past comments to Hollywood.com, she described undergoing months of rigorous dance training specifically because she didn’t want a double, saying at the time, “The dilemma for me was I had to constantly prove myself as a dancer, because I didn’t want them to double me.”
She’s previously said she trained four to six hours a day in the lead-up to filming, leaving her feet blistered and calloused, and has acknowledged a double was used only for scenes requiring pointe ballet work she wasn’t trained to perform.
Her new comments suggest a somewhat broader use of a double than she’d indicated before, though she didn’t elaborate further on the discrepancy.
