Julia Stiles reveals truth behind romance with Heath Ledger ahead of Dancing With The Stars tribute

LEAVE A COMMENT Dancing with the Stars fans know how emotional Dedication Night has become, and we don't think this week will ever be topped – not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.

That's because Julia Stiles will honor her late co-star Heath Ledger, an actor who – much like the late James Dean – died far too early and left behind a legacy that only hints at the potential of what could have possibly come.

"I really feel how important it is to honor him," Julia – who starred with Heath in the 1999 movie 10 Things I Hate About You – said of the performance. "He lives on because his performance in that film was so incredible."

The pair played high schoolers Kat Stratford, an anti-social feminist, and Patrick Verona, her bad boy classmate, who are set up by her younger sister Bianca, who can only start dating when Kat does.

The film has an iconic scene when Patrick – who has been recruited by Bianca and her crush Cameron to date Kat – serenades the senior with Frankie Valli’s "Can’t Take My Eyes Off You" and Julia and her professional partner Ezra Sosa will dance to that song.

"It was a really special moment in time," she recalled in a recent livestream reshared on TikTok. "It was really, really, really, special, and we’re going to capture that in our performance."

Julia and Heath's chemistry was the heart of the film and many wondered if the pair dated throughout filming. They never did, but Julia and Heath only ever had kind words for each other.

In 2025, she told E! News that Heath, 19 at the time of filming, was "such a bright light."

"We all had such a good time and were close on that set, and he just walked into the room and lit it up," she said.

In 2021, she opened up about the film's climactic scene where Kat reads a poem out loud in class in which she confesses her love to Patrick and shared that Heath was "such a gracclimacticious actor."

"The scene where I’m reading the poem and I start to cry, I did not expect to cry. We did it in one or two takes. But when we were done and they were going to turn the camera around and get his coverage, he didn’t try and compete. He said, 'This is your scene and I’m just handing it over to you.'"

There was, however, one on-set romance, and that was between Julia and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who played Cameron, Bianca's love interest.

"They were very, very attracted to each other,” director Gil Junger revealed of the pair in 2021, claiming that Julia told him that when she was crying during the poem scene she was actually thinking of Joseph.

"That was maybe one of the most moving performances I've ever seen, and I've seen plenty," he said. "It just killed me. It was so raw, and it was so honest, and it was so vulnerable. I even asked her — I said, 'Where did that come from?' And she told me, 'I was just thinking about' — that person's name that she was deeply in love with at the time."

It's been 18 years since Heath died at the age of 28 from an accidental overdose of prescription medication, and Julia has acknowledged that the joy Heath brought to so many has to be included, sharing that the performance is "going to give you tears of joy too."

"I don’t think we’ve ever approached a performance with more care, sensitivity, and intention than this one," Ezra and Julia shared on Instagram Tuesday, October 20, before week six.

"From the very beginning it was incredibly important to both Julia and I that this tribute be created with the utmost respect, thoughtfulness, and close guidance from those who hold Heath and his memory closest," it read. "This isn’t about defining a relationship or telling a story that isn’t ours to tell. It’s about honoring a beautiful moment in time, a film that changed so many lives, and someone whose impact continues to be felt by generations."

“We’ve poured so much love into this piece, and we’re incredibly grateful for the trust placed in us to bring it to life. Our only hope is that it honors his memory with the dignity, love, and respect it deserves."

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