And, perhaps, few should commit to a firm life plan.

With an English lit degree and more than a dozen movie credits in hand, Stiles admitted to NME last year, "I wasn't as clear about what I wanted to do. I just took roles because I thought it was interesting to have that life experience. 'Oh, I'll go to this part of the world or I'll work with these people or this is kind of an interesting story.'"

As in, why not dip back into the Bourne franchise for three more films? "I got to travel to amazing parts of the world and work with Matt [Damon]," she reasoned to the L.A. Times. Or, perhaps, try her hand at television, her season-long stint as a murderous rape survivor on Dexter earning her both a Golden Globe and an Emmy nod. 

But in between she shot a string of indies that never gained much traction and began to worry that all the entries on her ever-growing resume weren't actually adding up to a satisfying career. 

"I felt like I was sort of jumping from job to job that I wasn't really connected to," she explained to the Daily Beast, "and worried about where my career was going."