Julia Stiles sought Michelle Williams' permission for Dancing With the Stars routine
Julia Stiles has revealed how she prepared for her tribute to Heath Ledger, her former co-star.
Julia Stiles sought permission from Michelle Williams before paying tribute to Heath Ledger on Dancing With the Stars.
The 45-year-old actress starred alongside Heath - who died in January 2008, aged 28 - in 10 Things I Hate About You, the 1999 romcom, and Julia has revealed that she reached out to Michelle, Heath's former partner, before honouring him with a special routine on Dancing With the Stars.
Julia told Extra: "I did ask Michelle if this was OK."
Some of Julia's former co-stars - including Gabrielle Union, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, Susan May Pratt and Andrew Keegan - watched Julia's performance on Dancing With the Stars, and Julia relished having their support.
The actress said: "I called Joey and Larisa [first] and then Susan and Keegan and everybody, and also the two female writers of 10 Things were here tonight. I reached out to them.
"The web got cast and everybody kinda said, ‘I’ll do it if everybody else does it.’ And that was it!"
Meanwhile, Julia previously recalled being told that she was "too serious" as a young actress.
The movie star started acting at age 11, performing with New York's La MaMa Theatre Company, and she enjoyed huge success around the turn of the century - but one piece of advice always stuck with Julia.
Speaking during an Instagram video, Julia shared: "I remember being an auditioning actress as a teenager, and every single audition that I went to, they'd be like, 'You need to smile more. Just smile, be more bubbly and effervescent. Because you're so serious. You're too serious'.
"And that just made me angry, but luckily I found the role of Kat Stratford in 10 Things I Hate About You."
The 1999 romcom proved to be one of the biggest successes of Julia's career and she relished playing the role of Kat Stratford, having been preferred for the part over the likes of Eliza Dushku and Katie Holmes.
Julia said: "It was just so much fun playing her because she wasn't driven by everybody else's judgement of her. How awesome that, like 25 years later, different generations of ladies are still responding to her and that movie?"
