Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger WireImage; FilmMagic
Julia Stiles is singing the praises of her 10 Things I Hate About You costar Heath Ledger years after his untimely death.
“He was amazing,” Stiles, 43, exclusively told E! News in an interview published on Tuesday, January 14. “He was such a bright light.”
While Stiles gushed that she and all of her costars had “such a good time and were close on that set” of the 1998 film, she recalled there being something different about Ledger’s interactions. “He just walked into the room and lit it up,” she said.
Stiles, who’s first-ever starring role was in the beloved romantic comedy, said Ledger “was very kind and generous to me.”
“Which you know, when you’re an actress in your first leading role in a big studio movie, you need to feel comfortable with the other person,” Stiles said. “And he was very generous that way.”
Stiles and Ledger played high school love interests in the film, which also starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Cameron James), Gabrielle Union (Chastity), Allison Janney (Ms. Perky), David Krumholtz (Michael Eckman), Larisa Oleynik (Bianca Stratford), Andrew Keegan (Joey Donner) and Susan May Pratt (Mandella).
Ledger died at age 28 in 2008 following an accidental drug overdose. The toxicology report released at the time showed that Ledger died from “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine.”
While recalling filming with Ledger, Stiles said her character Kat Strafford’s paintball date with Heath’s Patrick Verona was “really, really fun.” Stiles also noted that the scene where Kat read her poem out loud in class elicited an emotional reaction.
The beloved 10 Things I Hate About You made its debut on March 31, 1999, and more than two decades later, fans are still talking about the romantic comedy. Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger played star-crossed lovers Kat Stratford and Patrick Verona, respectively. The pair reluctantly fell in love with each other amid a backdrop […]
“The scene where I read the poem, I did not expect to start crying or tearing up or choking up, whatever,” Stiles recalled. “But it just happened because the movie was coming to an end, the production was coming to an end. And I think I was just so moved by the whole experience.”
In the years following the release of 10 Things I Hate About You, Stiles revealed to Us Weekly in 2019 that her memories from the movie are slipping away.
“I have so many great memories from that movie that are fading because it has been 20 years,” Stiles said. “But it was just such a special time where we were all so excited.”
She added, “It was my first big job and I really loved that part because I hadn’t seen the character of a teenage girl so feisty before and that just felt really refreshing and I was really, really happy to be a part of it.”
