Actress Julia Stiles has a hard time watching herself in the 1999 hit “10 Things I Hate About You,” which made her and the late Heath Ledger household names.
In an interview with People, the 38-year-old actress compared the film to a “home video from high school.”
“I usually just look away,” Stiles said. “I’m glad that people enjoyed it and I’m glad that they’re still talking about it. I don’t take that for granted, but I look away pretty quickly.”
Despite the cringe factor that the “Jason Bourne” actress probably experiences when seeing old footage of herself, it does seem like the cast of teen movie, which also included Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gabrielle Union-Wade, Larisa Oleynik and Andrew Keegan, had a whole lot of fun on set.
In 2017, Union-Wade posted a throwback photo of the young cast, noting that the film was her first and one she’ll “never forget.”
Union-Wade also wrote “eternal light #RIPHeath,” a nod to Ledger, who died in 2008 from an accidental overdose at the age of 28.
And although Stiles does not mention Ledger in her interview with People, she has spoken in the past about the impact the “Dark Knight” star’s sudden death had on her.
Stiles told HuffPost in 2016 that she fell out of touch with Ledger after the film wrapped, and was “shocked” when a friend called to inform her of the actor’s death.
“It was so sad,” she recalled. “That was such an amazing time for all of us, and we were all so innocent.” She also mentioned that she found something Ledger gave to her while she was moving.
“I dug up this old note that he had written on this hotel stationery because we were all staying at the Sheraton in Tacoma, Washington, and it said — I forget the beginning of the quote, but it’s like, ‘Dance like you’ve never heard the music and love like you’ve never been hurt.’ It was so sweet. I almost cried. That was his goodbye note to me.”
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