Julia Stiles delivered a deeply moving and nostalgic tribute to her late co-star Heath Ledger during Tuesday night’s episode of “Dancing With the Stars,” drawing on one of the most iconic cinematic moments of the late 1990s to honor his enduring legacy.
During the program’s Dedication Night, Stiles took to the ballroom floor alongside her professional dance partner, Ezra Sosa, to perform a poignant contemporary routine. The dance was set to the timeless classic “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” a track inextricably linked to the history of the beloved 1999 teen romantic comedy “10 Things I Hate About You.” In the classic film, Ledger’s magnetic character, Patrick Verona, famously serenaded Stiles’ fiercely independent protagonist, Kat Stratford, from the stadium bleachers while she was stuck enduring soccer practice—a scene that remains a touchstone of romantic comedy cinema.
Following the broadcast of the routine, Stiles spoke with Variety to reflect on the immense emotional weight of the performance, the process of bringing the tribute to life on television, and what it meant to step back into the shoes of the character that helped define her early career.
According to Stiles, honoring Ledger required an authentic nod not just to his memorable performance, but to the collective magic of the film’s entire ensemble. She noted that capturing the true spirit of the movie meant bringing back the shared history of the cast that made the project so special to millions of viewers around the world.
“I said, if we had to have someone with us on stage representing Heath’s legacy or the film, I said it had to be the whole cast. I begged them, each and every one of them, and they all rallied. They really did,” Stiles shared with Variety following the routine. The performance resonated deeply with fans of the film, as well as with Stiles herself, who admitted that stepping back into the visual aesthetic of her teenage years proved to be an uncanny and surreal experience.
The actress described the sensation of putting on the costume—specifically a blue dress strikingly similar to the one worn by Kat Stratford in the film, paired with a matching hairstyle—as “really trippy.” Looking back at the decades that have passed since the movie first premiered in theaters, Stiles expressed a profound sense of gratitude and disbelief regarding her journey as both a person and an artist.
“At 17 years old, I never would have thought that here I’d be at 45, celebrating my body, dancing on the show that I absolutely love and that fans are still interested in this movie and still moved and touched by this movie,” she reflected.
Earlier in the week leading up to the live show, Stiles had opened up to Variety about the unexpectedly emotional nature of the rehearsal process. While she initially believed that sufficient time had passed for her to approach the dedication with professional detachment, confronting the raw archival material proved to be a powerful catalyst for buried memories.
“I know that Dedication Night is emotional, but I thought I was distanced from it enough. Like, oh, it was so many years ago. Something about seeing clips from that movie and images and hearing my voice and hearing his voice is bringing back so many memories. It’s a lot,” she explained, revealing that she even broke down in tears during practice sessions as the weight of the memories settled in.
Despite the bittersweet tears and the profound sorrow surrounding Ledger’s untimely passing in January 2008 at the age of 28, Stiles emphasized that the enduring love for the film is a testament to the extraordinary talent and charisma that Ledger brought to the screen.
“One of the things that we really hope to do as performers is to make people feel something and have people care about the work that you do, and his memory lives on because it was such an incredible performance,” Stiles said.
