Julia Stiles Reveals the Andy Cohen Comment She Still Remembers Before ‘DWTS’ Season 35
Julia Stiles entered Dancing With the Stars season 35 with one particular comment still stuck in her mind — a joke Andy Cohen previously made about her dancing in Save the Last Dance.
During the second half of the DWTS two-night premiere on Wednesday, September 16, Stiles, 45, brought up Cohen while talking with her professional partner, Ezra Sosa.
She told Sosa that Cohen’s quote had been “imprinted” in her brain.
The show then played a clip from Cohen’s 2025 SiriusXM interview with Stiles’ Save the Last Dance costar Kerry Washington.
During that conversation, Cohen jokingly questioned Stiles’ dancing ability, asking whether everyone could agree that she was “not the greatest dancer on the planet.”
He specifically referenced the memorable Juilliard audition sequence from the 2001 movie.
Washington laughed at the remark but also defended the choreography, pointing out that the sequence was created by renowned choreographer Fatima Robinson and reflected a particular cultural and stylistic context.
Back in rehearsals, Stiles explained that Save the Last Dance actually made her more self-conscious about dancing in real life.
Although she played a talented dancer in the movie, Stiles emphasized that she was never a professional dancer and noted that a dance double was used during production.
She said expectations created by the movie eventually caused her to stop taking dance classes because she felt pressure to live up to the image audiences had of her.
Now, Dancing With the Stars is giving her an opportunity to reconnect with dance in a completely different way.
Stiles even joked that winning the Mirrorball Trophy would be the perfect response to Cohen’s old criticism.
She told Sosa that they could win the competition and then appear on Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live couch to celebrate.
Stiles and Sosa made their competitive debut with a quickstep set to Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.”
The routine earned 18 out of 30 from the judges.
Judge Derek Hough praised the performance as “beautiful” and “graceful” and jokingly referenced Cohen during his critique.
Before the premiere, Stiles had already made it clear that her experience making Save the Last Dance did not necessarily prepare her for ballroom competition.
She said she could now look back at the movie and see how tense and self-conscious she had been.
For Stiles, joining DWTS represents a chance to move beyond those old insecurities, learn something new and enjoy dancing again with Sosa.
Dancing With the Stars season 35 airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+.
