Julia Stiles: Thorned In 'The Omen'

Many believe the prophecy from the Book of Revelation provides a map to a terrifying future or it presents fragments of history that have come to life in our time. The signs, they claim, are all around us: terrorist attacks, extreme weather the list goes on.

Kathryn Thorn (Julia Stiles) and her husband Robert (Liev Schreiber) are unaware of such dark prophecies. Being the adoptive parents of the seemingly innocent yet creepy little Damien, the couple is unaware that the child is the prophesied anti-Christ in this year's most terrifying film "THE OMEN."

Thorn, being a senior American diplomat, has other things on his mind. His wife, Kathryn, has endured a difficult delivery and she's as yet unaware their newborn child has died. Devastated by the loss, Thorn's concern turns to Kathryn, who had suffered two previous miscarriages. The news will surely devastate her.

Somebody from the hospital presents Thorn with another child born that night, whose mother died in childbirth. The priest compels Thorn to take the infant boy as his own; Kathryn will never know the truth. Kathryn embraces the child as her own, blossoming in motherhood; Thorn, it would seem, has made the right choice.

THE OMEN presented Moore, Williamson and their team many creative challenges, as well as a host of logistical hurdles. Casting the lead characters wasn't one of them.

In his search for "Robert and Kathryn Thorn," Moore used a surprisingly simple process. "I cast THE OMEN the way I always cast a picture, which is to put all the characters names on a big board and then put up actors' head-shots," says the director. "I stuck Julia Stiles's picture up on the board, and for weeks there was only one picture there. In fact, hers was the only photo on the board for the role of Kathryn Thorn."

Stiles, well known to audiences by her work in hits such as "The Bourne Identity," "Save the Last Dance" and "10 Things I Hate About You," is a newcomer to the horror-thriller genre. She was surprised - and then some - by Moore's offer for her to play Kathryn. "Actually, I was terrified," she recalls. "The idea of THE OMEN really frightened me. But I knew there was something in John's vision for the film and character that I could really sink my teeth into."

Stiles' Kathryn Thorn is the story's lone innocent because she's unaware of the circumstances surrounding the birth of her child. Of all the characters, Kathryn required the most updating from her incarnation in the original film. "We couldn't translate the Kathryn character from the original 'The Omen' because she was not really that layered," says producer Glenn Williamson. Adds John Moore: "Social, personal and political perspectives on motherhood have changed a lot in the past 30 years. In our story, Kathryn struggles with the fact that she's a young woman, a stay-at-home mother, living in a foreign country where she doesn't have many friends. Her personal conflict is agitated as Damien's true nature is revealed."

Kathryn evolves from a happy, confident young woman to a distraught mother full of doubt and suspicion. "Kathryn begins to feel a kind of detachment from Damien, which she and Robert cannot understand," says Stiles. "Over time, she realizes there's some validity to her fear of her son. Adding to her escalating troubles is the feeling that nobody's listening to her. She turns her anxiety inwards. It eats away at her until she eventually breaks down."

JULIA STILES (Kathryn Thorn) portrayed Glenna in David Mamet's "Edmond," starring William H. Macy, Dylan Walsh, Joe Mantegna and Mena Suvari, which premiered at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. She starred opposite Forest Whitaker in Baltasar Kormakur's "Little Trip to Heaven," which premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival.

Last year also saw Stiles reprise her role as Nicky in Paul Greengrass' "The Bourne Supremacy," the sequel to "The Bourne Identity." Other film credits include "Mona Lisa Smile," "The Business of Strangers," "Save the Last Dance" and David Mamet's "State & Main." The latter won the 2000 National Board of Review Award for Best Ensemble Cast.

Stiles's Shakespeare-inspired film credits include Tim Blake Nelson's "O," a contemporary adaptation of "Othello;" Michael Almereyda's "Hamlet," opposite Liev Schreiber and Ethan Hawke; and "Ten Things I Hate About You," for which she won the Chicago Film Critics Award for Most Promising Actress.

Stiles began her career on the New York stage, appearing in a number of plays at the L.A. Mama Theater and the Kitchen Theater, including "Everyday Newt Burman," "Matthew School of Life," and "The Sandalwood Box." More recently, Stiles shared the New York stage with Gloria Reuben and Mary Testa in Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues." In the summer of 2002, Stiles appeared as Viola in the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of "Twelfth Night" in Central Park.

THE OMEN hits theaters very soon from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.