Julia Stiles Husband may be the search term, but the real update is that Julia Stiles is joining Dancing with the Stars Season 35 with Ezra Sosa. The 45-year-old said she had wanted the show for years, then kept turning it down because she was too scared.
“It’s been a secret dream of mine to be here, and I was always just too scared to say yes, until now,” she said. Stiles also said, “I just can’t resist a challenge,” and described the move as a chance to get out of her comfort zone.
Season 35 on ABC and Disney+
Season 35 premieres on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 8 p.m. on ABC and Disney+, with the next-day stream on Hulu. That puts Stiles into a live, weekly competition that will be judged in public, not in hindsight, and it gives the show another recognizable name as it opens a new season.
The casting also extends the same long-running screen presence that made her a familiar face in 10 Things I Hate About You and Save the Last Dance. Stiles said she has been truly obsessed with the show for over a decade and called it her Tuesday Night Football, which is about as blunt a way as any performer has described a habit.
Ezra Sosa, age 25
Ezra Sosa, who is 25, is the pro partner taking her into the season. He said he felt “so lucky and honored to be able to give this experience to someone who’s such a big fan of the show,” and said he saw “someone’s dream come true” in real time.
That pairing matters because Stiles is not arriving as someone new to cameras or choreography; she is arriving with a built-in audience that already understands her range. The show is betting that a 45-year-old actor with a decade-plus attachment to the format can turn familiarity into week-to-week momentum.
Save the Last Dance echoes
Kerry Washington and Sean Patrick Thomas both sent video messages on Good Morning America, tying Stiles back to Save the Last Dance. Washington said she had known since those days that Stiles “truly knows your way around the dance floor,” while Thomas said he had a “front-row seat” the last time she took on a similar challenge and added that she got into Juilliard.
Stiles also said she has no injuries other than, occasionally for a minute, to her heart when she messes up. Her favorite part, she said, is when she understands the choreography and can feel it in her body, which is the part viewers will be watching for once the season starts.
For viewers, the useful detail is simple: the new season starts Tuesday, Sept. 15, on ABC and Disney+ at 8 p.m., then moves to Hulu the next day. For Stiles, the harder question is the one she left open herself — why this was finally the moment to stop being scared and say yes.
