Julia Stiles recently told the People in the ‘90s podcast about how gracious Heath Ledger was on the set of 10 Things I Hate About You.
In one of the movie’s most famous scenes Stiles’s character reads a heartbreaking poem about her feelings for Ledger’s character. The actress told co-hosts Jason Seeler and Andrea Lavinthal, “He wasn't trying to compete with me. He stood back and he was like, this is your scene. When they did his reaction shot, he didn't well up. He didn't go, 'Okay, now I have to do something with my side of the camera.' He was just like, 'That was beautiful and this is your scene.'
She added, “You know, he had his amazing moments in the movie, too — the singing and dancing and running up and down those steps. But he was confident enough, even just starting out, to be like, 'I'm handing over the stage to you.' And I learned way later in life that that doesn't always happen.”
Ledger died in 2008 of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. He was 28.
