Julia Stiles has learned a lot from both her days as a romcom darling (The Prince and Me) and as the poster child for righteous teenage angst (10 Things I Hate About You), and she's taking those lessons both into her directorial debut, and motherhood.
The actress – whose most recent film credit is this year's Chosen Family, and before that 2022's Orphan: First Kill – is gearing up to release her new movie, Wish You Were Here, and recently told the New York Times: "I think that actually being a mom is really great training for being a director."
She explained: "You have to think ten steps ahead but also be in the present moment. You have to be good at time management. You have to be sensitive to people's needs and guide them, but also hold a boundary."
Below, catch up on what she has been up to in recent years, both on and off the screen.
What is Julia Stiles doing now?
"I'm kind of like a bundle of emotions, because I have a five-month-old baby and I went into directing my first movie," Julia told the Times before their interview.
Still, she added: "I feel more energized than I ever have," and of embracing her role as director, especially after her supervisor encouraged her to "stop qualifying" her ideas on set, she further shared: "I took it to heart and I put on my big girl pants and leaned into being a director as opposed to a people-pleasing actress."
Though Wish You Were Here still doesn't have a release date, production wrapped in February. Based on a novel by Renee Carlino, the cast includes Isabelle Fuhrman, Mena Massoud, Jennifer Grey, and Kelsey Grammer, among others. The plot reads: "Charlotte, a woman who finds herself in a rut, searching for a spark that seems just out of reach. After she has a whirlwind night of romance and imagining a future with a man named Adam, he ghosts her. But when Charlotte finally discovers that Adam is terminally ill, she helps him spend his last days living life to the fullest."
Who is Julia Stiles' husband?
Julia met her now husband Preston Cook back in 2014 while working on the set of her film Blackway. They got engaged in 2015, and tied the knot with a small, private wedding in Seattle on Labor Day weekend in September.
MORE: Pregnant Julia Stiles marries in 'shotgun wedding'
Preston worked as an actor in the early 2000s, but today works more so behind-the-scenes as part of films' camera and electrical department. Some of his credits include Deadpool, Cold Pursuit, and War for the Planet of the Apes, among others.
MORE: Julia Stiles debuts her baby bump: 'I couldn't resist'
Does Julia Stiles have a child?
Three in fact! She announced both her first pregnancy and her marriage to Preston with an Instagram post back in 2017, sharing a photo of Preston's hand (with a wedding band on his ring finger) placed on Julia's wedding dress-clad belly.
In addition to son Strummer, now six, the couple also share son Arlo, two, as well as their third baby – "I didn't really talk about it," she told the Times of her decision to keep the pregnancy private – whose sex and name they've yet to disclose.
Get the lowdown on the biggest, hottest celebrity news, features and profiles coming out of the U.S. Sign up to our HELLO! Hollywood newsletter and get them delivered straight to your inbox.