At the turn of the century, Julia Stiles was unquestionably one of the most intriguing young actresses around. She was prickly and funny and charming in Ten Things I Hate About You, an object both of desires, and hatreds and manipulations in both O and Hamlet, a clever and sympathetic manipulator in State and Main, an independent woman making unusual choices in Mona Lisa Smile. And then she essentially vanished into minor roles in the Bourne movies and some critical and commercial failures. But from the sounds of this New York Times profile, she hasn't been wasting her time.
I think we tend to treat actors who want to direct, much less to learn to do any of the more technical parts of the filmmaking process, as dilettantes or egos, and to be surprised when they succeed. But I think it makes sense for someone like Stiles, who sometimes seemed uncertain about what kind of actress she wanted to become, to go back to craft. If you know what it's like to try to get an actor to convey an emotion that you have very specific ideas about but are having trouble explaining, perhaps you'll be better at trying to listen for nuance in a director's instructions to you. If you've tried to marry music and images in music videos, maybe you'll be more sensitive to what your face might look like in the interplay of film and score. Focus is important, of course: you don't hone your craft, whatever it is, if you leave it behind for years to pursue related tangents that are tangents none the less, you'll lose your touch and edge.
But it sounds like Stiles has kept up a good balance. And her appearance on Dexter might be enough to convince me to check out the show. It'll be interesting to see if television proves more engaging to Stiles than movies apparently did. She always tended towards complex roles. Perhaps she'll enjoy developing them fully on the small screen.