Julia Stiles Remembers What It Was Like To Work With Heath Ledger

Julia Stiles singing her praises 10 Things I Hate About You costar Heath ledger years after his untimely death.

“It was amazing,” Stiles, 43, said exclusively A! News in an interview published on Tuesday, January 14. “It was such a bright light.”

While Stiles gushed that she and all of her costars had “such a good time and being close to that set” of the 1998 film, she recalled that there was something different about Ledger’s interactions. “He walked into the room and lit it up,” she said.

Stiles, who had his first ever starring role in the beloved romantic comedy, said Ledger was “very kind and generous to me.”

“You know, when you’re an actress in your first lead role in a major 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, who 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) a Susan May Pratt (Mandela).

Ledger died aged 28 in 2008 following an accidental drug overdose. The toxicology report released at the time showed that Ledger died of “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine.”

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 aloud in class elicited an emotional reaction.

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The beloved 10 Things I Hate About You debuted 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 in the middle of a background (…)

“The scene where I read the poem, I didn’t expect to start crying or tear up or choke, whatever,” Stiles recalled. “But it happened because the film was ending, the production was ending. And I think the whole experience has really excited me.”

In the years after release 10 Things I Hate About YouExposed stiles i Us Weekly in 2019 it is memories of the film slips away.

“I have so many great memories of that movie that fade because it’s been 20 years,” Stiles said. “But it was such a special time where we were all so excited.”

She added, “It was my first big role and I loved that part because I hadn’t seen a teenage girl character so fierce before and that felt really refreshing and I was very happy to be a part of it. .”