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Dancing with the Stars fans watched the screen through blurry eyes as Julia Stiles’ heart-wrenching tribute to late co-star Heath Ledger.
The 45-year-old Hollywood star is currently competing on the US reality competition series alongside pro-partner Ezra Sosa.
This week was dedication night, when our titular stars choose someone to honour through their dance. For Julia, there was no question it would be her 10 Things I Hate About You castmate, Ledger. The Patrick to her Kat.
The Oscar winner died in 2008, aged 28, leaving behind an immense cinematic legacy and a legion of industry friends who have been honouring his memory ever since.
For the dance, Stiles and Sosa performed a contemporary routine to Frankie Valli’s Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. The song has special significance as in the 1999 film, Patrick serenades her with a touching rendition on the sports field.
As the dancing duo’s routine came to an end, the wall lit up with an image of Stiles and Ledger in the iconic coming-of-age flick, with a voiceover of Kat’s heartfelt poem that gave the movie its name.
Stiles, now teary-eyed, then placed a rose on the steps in front of the blown-up image. As the camera panned around, she was joined on stage by her 10 Things I Hate About You castmates who stood arm-in-arm for the poignant moment.
Alongside her were Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gabrielle Union, Larisa Oleynik, Andrew Keegan and Susan May Pratt, who stared at the photo with emotion written all over their faces.
The moving tribute has utterly destroyed fans. ‘This will forever make me cry,’ Bella wrote on X.
‘Burst into tears first thing in the morning,’ Anna agreed. ‘I was sobbing like crazy watching this,’ Luke shared.
‘Julia Stiles dedicating her dance to Heath Ledger and the 10 Things I Hate About You cast is there. I’m still crying,’ jas declared.
Discussing her memories of that time ahead of the performance, she said: ‘I see pictures from that time, and I’m like, wow. It was so easy with him.
‘I have so many great memories, but I’m also really sad, because I wish I could pick up the phone and be like: “Hey dude, people really care about that movie. We did something special.” And I can’t do that.
‘I want to recreate the lust for life that he had in that scene.’
She added to DWTS co-host Julianne Hough that ‘Heath just brought out the light in everybody. He was the leader of the pack at the time. He made everybody else shine.’
The Save the Last Dance actress spoke to People about how surprisingly ’emotional’ preparing for this performance was.
‘I know from watching the show how emotional Dedication Night is. It’s always very personal stories. But I thought: “Oh, I’m distanced enough from it. The movie was so many years ago”.
‘But something about watching clips from that movie, seeing our pictures, hearing our voices is bringing up a lot,’ she concluded.