Twenty-seven years after 10 Things I Hate About You hit theaters, the film still has a grip on pop culture that most late-’90s rom-coms can only dream of. Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Larisa Oleynik, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and David Krumholtz were lightning in a bottle — but the story behind the camera? That’s where things get wild.
That gut-punch of a scene where Kat (Stiles) reads her poem to Patrick (Ledger)? Stiles told Bustle in January 2025 that she and the crew filmed it in only two takes. Her tears weren’t scripted. She didn’t expect “to get choked up and cry” during the scene.
Julia Stiles Really Cried During ’10 Things I Hate About You’ Poem Scene
“We were filming that scene at the end of the summer and the movie was going to be winding down, and it had been such a big experience for me,” she said. “It was my first studio movie leading role. I loved that part so much. I loved the rest of the cast. And we’d had such a fun time and it was coming to an end, and it just … the emotion kind of got to me.”
Julia Stiles’ 10 Things Role Helped Her Land Save the Last Dance
The ’10 Things I Hate About You’ Poem Scene Faced a Technical Difficulty
There was a major catch with the poem scene. The production hit a snag after capturing that raw moment.
“We had to rerecord all of the audio in ADR because there was a creaking dolly,” Stiles said. “So I had to re-create the sound of me getting choked up months earlier.”
What Other Stars Almost Landed Roles in ’10 Things I Hate About You’?
The cast that ended up on screen almost looked very different. Casting director Marcia Ross recalled to The New York Times in 2019 that Kate Hudson was a serious contender, but “her mom didn’t like the script for her, so she passed.” Katie Holmes was also in the running but was about to land Dawson’s Creek, and the team “had to make a decision really fast.”
“But Julia and Heath just had the best chemistry together,” Ross said.
Patrick Verona had his own alternate-universe casting. According to The Independent, Josh Hartnett (who would go on to star in Pearl Harbor two years later) and Ashton Kutcher (who filmed Dude, Where’s My Car? instead) were both considered. 10 Things ended up being Ledger’s first U.S. film.
Gabrielle Union Was More Than a Decade Older Than Some Castmates
Gabrielle Union told The New York Times that the age gap between her and some of her castmates was wider than most viewers realized. “I was over 10 years older than my younger cast members, some of whom were still in high school,” she said. “So, it was kind of like, how close is this to my high school years? Do I look crazy playing a 15-year-old? Don’t mention Earth Wind & Fire or give away your age.”
’10 Things I Hate About You’ Director Took a Risk on Rooftop Scene
The final scene with Letters to Cleo performing a cover of “I Want You to Want Me” on the roof of Padua High School came with serious behind-the-scenes drama. The studio pushed back hard on the cost of sending a helicopter up to film it.
The band’s lead singer, Kay Hanley, told The New York Times just how close it came to disaster: “We did two takes, and it was pretty much assumed that this shot wasn’t going to work, and Gil [the director] would never work in Hollywood again because he had just blown through half a million dollars doing this shot he was forbidden to do. And it ended up being a pretty iconic scene.”
Hanley also painted a vivid picture of the conditions: “We’re all arranged on top of this postage-stamp-sized roof with chicken wire the only thing protecting us from toppling to our deaths into the Puget Sound.”
Half a million dollars on a forbidden shot. Career-ending gamble or instant classic — turns out it was the latter.
Did Heath Ledger Actually Sing in ’10 Things I Hate About You’?
When Patrick belts out Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” on the bleachers during Kat’s soccer practice, that’s really Ledger singing. Choreographer Marguerite Pomerhn Derricks told HuffPost in March 2019: “The singing impressed me more than anything because, as a choreographer, I can always find a way to make actors look amazing. But singing? That’s something you can’t fake.”
Where Was ’10 Things I Hate About You’ Filmed?
The film was shot on location primarily in Seattle, Washington. Stadium High School stood in for the fictional Padua High. Seattle Center provided the backdrop for Patrick’s serenade of Kat. Gas Works Park was used for the rooftop date scene, the University of Washington appeared in campus shots and outdoor sequences like biking and walking were filmed at Green Lake Park.
If you’re someone who revisits beloved films looking for details you missed the first dozen times, this one keeps delivering.
