Julia Stiles‘ debut on “Dancing With the Stars” wasn’t just her first performance in the ballroom. It also gave her a chance to revisit a comment made about a year earlier that had stuck with her.
During Wednesday’s episode, Stiles brought up a 2025 remark from Andy Cohen questioning her dancing abilities. By the end of the night, Cohen himself had responded.
The Origin of Andy Cohen’s Comment
The comment dates back to a September 2025 interview between Cohen and Stiles’ “Save the Last Dance” costar Kerry Washington on his SiriusXM show “Radio Andy.” While discussing the 2001 film, Cohen asked Washington, “Can we all just agree that Julia Stiles is not the greatest dancer on the planet?”
Washington pushed back, pointing out that the film’s climactic dance sequence was choreographed by Fatima Robinson, whom she described as a legend. She also noted that Robinson had choreographed the dance within a particular cultural context.
The exchange clearly stayed with Stiles. During her “DWTS” rehearsal package, she told professional partner Ezra Sosa that Cohen’s quote was “imprinted” in her brain before the show played a clip of the original conversation.
Julia Stiles Opens Up About Losing Her Confidence
Stiles has also explained that expectations surrounding “Save the Last Dance” affected her relationship with dancing long after the movie was released.
Before her “DWTS” debut, Stiles told Us Weekly that she stopped taking dance classes after the movie because she became self-conscious about the expectations surrounding her performance.
“I am not a professional dancer by any means. I just played one in a movie,” Stiles also explained during her “DWTS” rehearsal package, noting that a dance double was used in the film. She said joining the competition was an opportunity to rediscover the joy of dancing and rebuild her confidence.
“This is my chance to free myself from all that and just enjoy the experience and learn something new with an amazing partner at the top of his game,” she previously said.
That context helps explain why Andy Cohen’s comment remained memorable for Julia Stiles and why stepping onto the ballroom floor carried significance beyond simply competing for the Mirrorball Trophy.
Julia Stiles Makes Her ‘DWTS’ Debut Before Andy Cohen Apologizes
During Wednesday’s episode, Stiles referenced Cohen’s 2025 comment while talking to Sosa and asked whether he knew the “Watch What Happens Live” host. “Yes, that diva,” Sosa jokingly responded.
Stiles then revealed her ambitious plan: win the Mirrorball Trophy, appear on Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live” couch and greet him with a simple “Hey.” She and Sosa subsequently performed a quickstep to Dolly Parton‘s “9 to 5,” earning 18 out of 30 points from judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli.
Hough praised Stiles’ performance, calling it “beautiful” and “graceful,” before delivering a playful message directly to Cohen: “Andy Cohen, you can eat it!”
Cohen addressed the moment hours later on “Watch What Happens Live,” naming himself the show’s “Jackhole of the Day” and apologizing to Stiles.
“Julia, I am so sorry,” Cohen said, acknowledging that he was hardly in a position to critique anyone else’s dancing. He then praised Stiles’ performance and predicted that she would have a great run on the competition.
Cohen wrapped up his response with a reference to another of Stiles’ best-known movies, “10 Things I Hate About You,” joking that viewers had permission to flood his inbox with “the ten things you hate about me.”
Stiles’ Debut Had Another Special Meaning
Beyond the Andy Cohen storyline, Julia Stiles’ quickstep carried another layer of significance because of her song choice. Stiles revealed that Dolly Parton had personally approved her use of “9 to 5” just weeks before the country icon’s death on Aug. 25.
The song was particularly fitting for the Season 35 premiere, which had contestants performing to songs that reached No. 1 during the year they were born. “9 to 5” topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981, the year Stiles was born.
“It was only a couple weeks before Dolly passed that she approved this song specifically for me,” Stiles said during the episode. The actress described herself as honored to dance to Parton’s music and celebrate her legacy, adding that she wanted to make the singer proud.
Between paying tribute to Parton and confronting the insecurities that had followed her since “Save the Last Dance,” Stiles’ first night in the ballroom became about considerably more than her score.
And with Stiles and Sosa safely advancing beyond the premiere, she’ll have another opportunity to build on that confidence when she returns to the ballroom.
