Julia Stiles says preparing to honor her late 10 Things I Hate About You costar Heath Ledger on tonight’s Dancing With the Stars episode is “bringing up a lot” of emotions.
Stiles and her professional dance partner, Ezra Sosa, will perform a contemporary routine to Frankie Valli’s 1967 hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” during tonight’s Dedication Night.
The song holds special significance for fans of 10 Things I Hate About You. In the 1999 romantic comedy, Ledger’s character serenades Stiles’s character from the bleachers at their high school stadium.
Ledger died in January 2008 at age 28 from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.
Stiles told People magazine that she’s “surprised” at how emotional preparing for the performance has been. “I know 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.”
On Instagram, Stiles called making the movie with Ledger a “special moment in time.” She added, “It’s amazing that people still care about that movie and it’s just sad that we can’t celebrate it with him.”
The actor will pay tribute to Ledger on Dancing With the Stars.
(Buena Vista/Everett Collection)
Stiles has previously spoken fondly of working with Ledger, describing him as “such a bright light” in a January 2025 interview with E! News. She recalled how his kindness helped her feel comfortable during her first leading role in a major movie. “He just walked into the room and lit it up,” she said.
The DWTS tribute will come one week after Stiles revisited another movie moment on the dance floor.
During the Oct. 13 episode, she and Sosa performed a jazz routine inspired by her 2001 film Save the Last Dance, set to a remix of Jennifer Lopez’s “Jenny From the Block.” The routine featured a surprise cameo by her former costar Sean Patrick Thomas.
The pair earned 33 out of 40 points from the judges, their highest score of the season so far.
Speaking about the fan response to the routine, she told People, “I’m going to start crying. It is a dream for any performer to have people care… Decades later, to know that people are still enjoying that movie, it means the world to me. And I got to do my do-over. I got a second chance.”
Stiles will be among 10 celebrities paying tribute to people and places that hold special meaning for them.
Jenna Dewan will honor her mother, Nancy, with a Viennese waltz to “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers. But her dance will be performed with substitute partner Alan Bersten rather than Val Chmerkovskiy.
Chmerkovskiy was benched for the week after responding to judge Carrie Ann Inaba’s critique of his wife, fellow pro Jenna Johnson. In a since-deleted TikTok video, Chmerkovskiy referenced Will Smith’s 2022 Oscars slap. “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night,” Chmerkovskiy wrote, a nod to the sitcom character that propelled Smith’s career.
On Saturday, BBC Studios, which produces Dancing With the Stars, announced it was suspending Chmerkovskiy for a week, saying in a statement that the “well-being of everyone who works on” the show “is non-negotiable.” Chmerkovskiy has since apologized, saying he made a “poor decision to reference a meme.”
Other performances tonight will include Tatyana Ali honoring her late Fresh Prince of Bel-Air costar James Avery with a Viennese waltz to Nancy Wilson’s “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am.”
Glee actor Harry Shum Jr. will dedicate a foxtrot to his wife, Shelby and The Traitors star Maura Higgins will pay tribute to her home country of Ireland with a paso doble to Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.”
Former DWTS professional Kym Johnson will return as a guest judge for the episode, which airs Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+.