Julia Stiles is best known for her cheery, teen-focused films, starting with her breakout “10 Things I Hate About You,” “Save the Last Dance,” “The Prince and Me,” along with darker teenage films such as “O.” She trades in her textbooks for a bible however as she stars in a remake of the 1976 classic horror film, “The Omen.” Julia takes on the role made famous by Lee Remick as a mother who becomes terrified of an unimaginable horror: she has given birth to a child of Satan.

“The Omen” co-stars Liev Schreiber and Mia Farrow. Below, Julia talks about the project in an interview.

Q:  Did you think you would ever be in a horror film?

JULIA: I did. I actually never thought I'd want to be in a horror film. Usually, when it's shock horror, it's all about the violence. Actors don't get to do much; they're just sort of reacting.  I was very excited to be part of this film. It's very psychologically driven. A sign of a good horror film is if it will last three years later, and if you walk out of a theater and you carry some of the imagery with you, it's a testament of how powerful it is. It hits some sort of core truth. I watched the original when I was speaking to John Moore about doing the updated version and there's a scene where Lee Remick tells her husband she needs to see a psychiatrist and it's so chilling because so much is said, yet nothing is said. I thought it was so chilling and intriguing. I wanted to explore that more. That meant to me that there was something psychologically going on more than just the violence. 

Q:  This version of “The Omen” is more than just a straight up story – it seems John Moore added a lot more nightmare and fantasy sequences.

JULIA: I'm so glad he added the dream sequences. Nightmare sequences can be tricky because they can get too out there, but I think John is really good at using images that are part of our collective consciousness – things that recur in dreams. Also, it lets you see a window into what my character is seeing. She says when she closes her eyes, she sees grotesque things so it allows you to see what she sees. In terms of progression, I wanted to show her in the beginning when she is sane and happy and optimistic and in a loving relationship so that when things later don't go according to plan, it's that much more heartbreaking. I think her biggest problem is not that her suspicions about her son, but her own self doubt. The hardest thing for a mother to be able to come to terms with is to be afraid of your own son or think that there is something wrong with him. She suppresses that for so long that that's ultimately makes her nutty. 

Q: You're young and you've never played a mother before. Was that a new challenge for you as an actress?

JULIA: I think being inexperienced in that sense, not having been a mother actually helped. Being a young mother helps because anybody who is more mature or had more experience with motherhood wouldn't have been so doubtful about herself or wouldn't have been so confused about her relationship with her son. But it was easy to imagine that that would be difficult for a mother. 

Q:  Do you have a special relationship with Mia now because you two worked on back-to-back projects?

JULIA: It was bizarre because Mia and I did a play together in New York where we played mother and daughter. Two weeks later, we're shooting a scene in Prague where she was trying to kill me. It was confusing, to say the least. I was really happy to work with her again. I learned so much from watching her, even with her facial expressions. She's such an angelic comforting demeanor around herself and at the drop of a hat, she can give you a cold devilish stare. It's all fake but it's so believable. 

Q: Have you seen the movie yet with an audience?

JULIA: No, I saw it in a screening and I'm really curious to see what audiences respond to. I know I was scared and riveted too which is odd because I knew what was going to happen. I got absorbed by the story and I'm normally very critical when I watch myself on screen but I kind of forgot about that because I got so wrapped up by the plot. 

Q: Was it a different experience for you to not take on a teenage role?

JULIA: Yeah, but I'm 25 so it would be ridiculous for me to play a teenager right now. In terms of what the character has to go through, it was more sophisticated. I'm really happy with a lot of the movies I've done but I guess it's a natural growing up period I guess. 

Q: The movie, in referencing to apocalyptic events, showcases images from 9/11, the Challenger explosion, etc.. Do you think that will cause any concerns with the viewers?

JULIA: I think there are two reasons for the use of that imagery, or even making a reference to current events. When we're living in such chaotic times or have so many tragedies going around us, people look for answers. They look for faith or science to explain things out of their control. The movie definitely hits on that. Also, since many of those events, especially September 11^th, we've been given this vocabulary about good and evil. A lot of religious rhetoric has been circulating so it's very appropriate for the subject matter of the film. 

Q: What kind of preparation did you go through for “The Omen”?

JULIA: My preparation was totally inadvertent and unintentional. I got to Prague and had horrible nightmares everyday while we were shooting. I couldn't sleep; my apartment was right next to one of the oldest cemeteries in the world. I was scared at every corner. In retrospect, that was to psyche myself up for the character I was playing, or getting into the mood. That was my preparation – to absorb these terrifying images. 

Q: Hollywood folklore says that on the sets of movies like the original “The Omen,” “Poltergeist,” and “The Exorcist,” weird things would happen on set…

JULIA: Mia told me all these stories about “Rosemary's Baby” and I was like, “Be quiet, I don't want to hear it!”  

Q: Did anything like that happen on the set of this movie?

JULIA: For me, I was open to it. I was ready. I took everything seriously. Liev dismissed it as coincidence or something that could be explained. There was footage destroyed in the laboratory or it came back with smudges, just like the film. But what I saw – obviously, you see the number 666 everywhere because you're kind of looking for it, but the first scene I was shooting, is a scene where Liev hands me the child, Damien, and we were shooting next to a church. Of course, as we couldn't shoot the scene because the church bells were ringing excessively, which is explainable, but they kept going. When they started, it was six minutes after 6'o clock. I'm not kidding. That was really what happened. Call it coincidence, but I was aware of all these things.