Julia Stiles turned her Oct. 20 Dancing With the Stars performance into a love letter to 10 Things I Hate About You and to Heath Ledger. She and partner Ezra Sosa danced to Frankie Valli’s“Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”and recreated the film’s bleacher serenade scene. Before the routine, Stiles said she reached out to Ledger’s former partner, Michelle Williams, to ask if the tribute was okay. Williams said yes.
The surprises kept coming. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, Andrew Keegan, Gabrielle Union, Susan May Pratt and the film’s writers all appeared for an on-stage reunion, and the routine closed with a group hug after a quiet solo moment honoring Ledger, who died in 2008 at 28. Stiles said she was bawling through the first rehearsal from nostalgia alone.
The care behind the performance is what’s resonating online. Asking the family first, assembling the original cast, and letting the moment be tender instead of flashy all point to a tribute built on respect, not attention. Stiles herself said the team approached it with more care and intention than anything they’d done before.
Which 90s or 2000s movie moment would you want to see honored like this? Tell us in the comments.
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Local Lawton
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