Julia Stiles made her debut on Dancing with the Stars on September 16, paying tribute to the late country crooner, Dolly Parton.The 10 Things I Hate About You actress chose Parton’s hit number 9 to 5 for her performance with partner Ezra Sosa during the season 35 premiere of the talent hunt show. Stiles revealed that the legendary artist approved her use of the song weeks before she died on August 25 at age 80. View this post on Instagram Instagram PostThe 45-year-old actress revealed on the show:“A couple weeks before Dolly passed, she approved this song, specifically for me. I’m so honored to be dancing to her music and honoring her legacy. I wanna make her proud.”Stiles described Dolly Parton as a “powerhouse” and a “legend”, adding that 9 to 5 was the first song they talked about. According to a People magazine report, Stiles chose this particular track since it was the number 1 hit from 1981, her birth year.Judges sing praises for Julia Stiles amid her “Dancing with the Stars” debutJulia Stiles made her debut on Dancing with the Stars on Night 2 of the latest season, which aired on September 16. Her performance earned strong praise from the judges for her quickstep on Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5.She performed as a tribute to the late singer, revealing that Parton personally approved the song for her before her death. Judges Derek Hough, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba raved over Stiles’ performance with her pro partner Ezra Sosa. They received a total score of 18/30, placing them near the top of the leaderboard.Once their performance reached its end, Hough praised Stiles’ performance as “beautiful” and “graceful.” He called out Andy Cohen, saying:“Andy Cohen, you can eat it.”Judge Tonioli noted Stiles’ ability to combine acting and dancing, and told her:“You were in character, spot on, all the way through. You’re a great actor and a great dancer.”Carrie Ann Inaba called the performance “very clean.” View this post on Instagram Instagram PostIn the rehearsal footage with pro partner Ezra Sosa, Stiles explained that she stopped taking dance classes after the movie because people expected her to be a “perfect dancer.” She then poked fun at Andy Cohen’s past comments on her dancing skills and viral memes from her film Save the Last Dance.During a September 2025 episode of his SiriusXM show, Radio Andy, Cohen said:“Can we all just agree that Julia Stiles is not the greatest dancer on the planet?”While interacting with Ezra Sosa in her rehearsals, Julia Stiles revealed that Cohen’s remarks on her dancing were “imprinted in my brain” which made her join the show. She said that her goal was to “win the mirrorball, sit on Andy’s couch and be like, ‘Hey.’”Julia Stiles previously starred as an aspiring ballerina in the 2001 film Save the Last Dance. She underwent two months of intensive ballet and hip-hop training with choreographer Fatima Robinson. During a 2021 interview with Today, she said:“The absolute best thing about making that movie was the dance. I mean, the rehearsals, and the dance training. I was, like, sign me up; where do I start? It was really challenging and really daunting because I'm not a professional dancer. So there was a lot of playing catch-up. But it was so fun. And such an awesome opportunity to get to do that kind of, like, rigorous training, and choreography rehearsals.”Stiles has ventured into directing by making her directorial debut with the feature film Wish You Were Here, released in January 2025. She recently narrated the Mary chapters of the audiobook version of the film and also portrayed the role of Maisy-May in the Amazon Prime series The Lake.