It was clear from the moment she took the stage that Julia Stiles was having a lot of feelings about paying tribute to her late 10 Things I Hate About You co-star Heath Ledger on Tuesday night’s (Oct. 20) Dancing With the Stars. What followed was a joyous, emotional, moving routine cued to Frankie Valli’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 2 pop hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” that incorporated choreography from that 1999 rom-com, as well as snippets of Stiles’ dialogue and a surprise reunion of the cast at the end.
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But, before the actress and professional dance partner Ezra Sosa took the floor, Stiles told Extra that she reached out to the actor’s former partner, actress Michelle Williams, to get her blessing.
“I did ask Michelle if this was OK and she said yes,” Stiles revealed of the sign-off from the Dying for Sex star in a post-show interview; Williams is the mother of Ledger’s 20-year-old daughter, Matilda.
Once they settled on the dedication, Stiles said she also knew she needed to have the whole cast on stage with her to represent the movie and Ledger. “It can’t just be one person, it’s got to be everybody,” she said. So, she got on the phone and called Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, Andrew Keegan, Gabrielle Union and Susan May Pratt, as well as the movie’s writers, Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith, and everyone agreed to participate.
Stiles said Sosa was very sensitive to her feelings about revisiting the movie that helped launch her career and ended up changing the concept of the dance in a way that “really opened me up and I’m forever grateful.” She added that she was “bawling the first day of rehearsals because of all the nostalgia and the memories,” feeling as if she was “bumping up against something.”
The result was pure joy, as it recreated a scene in which Ledger’s character, Patrick Verona, serenaded Stiles’ Kat Stratford with the Valli pop classic during her high school soccer practice by dancing his way down the bleachers in a bid to win her over. Wearing a floor-length blue gown that paid tribute to the dress she wore in the movie, Stiles glided with passion across the floor with Sosa in moves that nodded to Ledger’s hoofing in the film, before the tempo slowed down and the actress had a quiet, solo moment on stage to honor her late co-star, who died at 28 in 2008 from an accidental overdose of prescription pills.
After Sosa handed Stiles a single red rose, she stepped back as her emotional poem from the film played over a picture of the two young stars. She was then joined by the rest of the cast, who ended the routine with a sweet group hug.
In a joint Instagram post after the show, Stiles and Sosa described how they carefully planned the routine. “I don’t think we’ve ever approached a performance with more care, sensitivity, and intention than this one,” they wrote. “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.”
