DWTS ' Julia Stiles & Ezra Sosa Tease "Piping Hot" Tea From Rehearsals

Originally appeared on E! Online

Leave it toJulia Stiles and Ezra Sosa to twist and shout.

The Dancing With the Stars contestant and her pro partner teased how they’ve been leveling up their dance rehearsals ahead of the season 35 premiere on Sept. 15.

“The tea is piping hot,” Sosa exclusively told E! News at the 2026 Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sept. 6. “She’s doing absolutely incredible. I will confidently say I’ve never worked with someone who’s working so hard and who’s so passionate about doing this, and it just makes me so excited to see their journey on the show.”

“One thing about Julia is how effortlessly beautiful she is,” he continued. “She doesn’t even try hard, and it’s just the most stunning thing ever. I’ve never been around a movie star like this before, so just to be around that every single day, it’s super inspiring.”

As for Stiles—who kept mum on the details of her first routine, but revealed the long nails she’ll be sporting in the ballroom next week—she explained that Sosa has already instilled a new type of “confidence” in her.

“He really knows how to make a girl feel good,” she quipped to E! in their joint interview. “Also, just the precision. I’m a workhorse, so I like repetition, repetition, repetition, and he’s very patient with me about just doing it over and over again.”

The 10 Things I Hate About You star also appreciates how “creative and dedicated” Sosa is.

“It is such a joy to watch him cook, so to speak,” she said. “Like when he’s coming up with new choreography.”

And that’s especially valuable because she doesn’t have formal dance training herself—despite playing a Juilliard-bound ballerina in the 2001 movie Save the Last Dance.

“I stopped taking dance classes after that movie, and I wasn’t even that good of a dancer to start with,” the 45-year-old explained. “I’m a home dancer. Like, I have rhythm. That’s why it was cast. But in terms of the training, no. So this is all new to me.”

Stiles and Sosa’s chemistry has become so strong that they’ve already picked out a team name: So Stilez. And they’re planning to cement that bond with matching tattoos at some point.

“It was probably one of our first discussions. We’re like, ‘so the tattoos,’ but we don’t know what we’re gonna get yet,” Sosa said. “We’re just gonna let the season unfold, and then we’ll see what the tattoo is.”

Before DWTS kicks off on ABC Sept. 15, read on to see who Stiles and Sosa will be competing against.