Julia Stiles says she is ‘honoured’ to play a part in Kendrick Lamar vs Drake feud

Julia Stiles has said she is “honoured” to play a part in the famous Drake vs Kendrick Lamar feud.

The chart-topping rappers have been embroiled in a public rivalry for years, which flared up last year thanks to a series of diss tracks exchanged between the pair.

Stiles, 44, made an unlikely appearance in their dispute when Drake, 38, appeared to respond to a new release – titled “Euphoria” – from Lamar, 37, last year by sharing a scene from her hit film 10 Things I Hate About You.

The scene in question occurs towards the end of the 1999 romantic-comedy, when Stiles’s character, Kat, is reciting a love poem about her soon-to-be-boyfriend Patrick (Heath Ledger) with whom she is fighting.

The poem sees a teary-eyed Kat reel off several reasons she hates him, including the way he cuts his hair and his “big dumb combat boots” before concluding that she, in fact, loves him.

Drake shared the clip on his Instagram story in May last year, accompanied with a wink-face and broken heart emoji.

Stiles learnt of her unexpected cameo in the rap world from a journalist during a recent interview with The Times. “I didn’t know that,” she told the journalist, who noted that she was smiling. “I’m so honoured. That’s amazing.”

Reflecting on the moment a while longer, the actor added: “It’s a little confused because at the end of the poem [the message is], ‘I don’t hate you at all.’”

“Maybe he was trying to make up with Kendrick Lamar,” said Stiles.

Any attempt at reconciliation did not work, however, with the pair still feuding. In February this year, Lamar earned his first ever UK number one with his track “Not Like Us”, which he performed at the Super Bowl.

In January, Drake accused Universal Music Group Recordings Inc – which both he and Lamar are signed to – of spreading the “false and malicious narrative” that he is a pedophile in the hit song, which includes the lyrics: “Say, Drake, I hear you like em’ young.”

Lamar is not named in the lawsuit; however, Drake additionally claimed that UMG knew the accusations were false but chose corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.

In March, Universal Music Group Recordings Inc filed a motion to dismiss Drake’s defamation lawsuit.

Based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things I Hate About You saw the late Ledger as the broody Patrick Verona, who has to try and convince the antisocial Kat Stratford, played by Julia Stiles, to date him, so that new student Cameron James, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt can date Kat’s sister, Bianca, played by Larisa Oleynik.

The film went on to become a cult classic, launching the careers of Stiles, Ledger, and Gordon-Levitt.

Earlier this month, director Gil Junger revealed that a sequel is “definitively in the works” and that it is being developed as a trilogy: 10 Things I Hate About Dating, followed by 10 Things I Hate About Marriage, and 10 Things I Hate About Kids.

He added that while the project hasn’t been green-lit yet, he is co-writing the script with Naya Elle James, and the original film’s producer, Andrew Lazar, is also involved. Together, he said, they have “some pretty good ideas”.

The sequel will be based on the 1666 satirical play by Molière, The Misanthrope.

On bringing back the original cast, Junger sounded very enthusiastic. That said, Stiles did not want to comment on her involvement in the sequels in her interview with The Times.

Stiles is currently making her directorial debut with Wish You Were Here, an adaptation of the novel by the bestselling romance writer Renée Carlino.

The film stars Kelsey Grammar (Frasier) and Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing). It will be available to rent and own on 17 May.