{"id":636253,"date":"2026-10-20T11:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T11:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636253\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T11:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T11:52:10","slug":"julia-stiles-didnt-expect-her-dancing-with-the-stars-tribute-to-heath-ledger-to-hit-her-so-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636253\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Stiles didn’t expect her ‘Dancing With the Stars’ tribute to Heath Ledger to hit her so hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julia Stiles says preparing to honor her late 10 Things I Hate About You costar Heath Ledger on tonight’s Dancing With the Stars<\/a> episode is “bringing up a lot” of emotions.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> from the bleachers at their high school stadium.<\/p>\n

Ledger died in January 2008 at age 28 from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.<\/p>\n

Stiles told People magazine<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n

On Instagram<\/a>, 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.”<\/p>\n

\"Julia<\/p>\n

The actor will pay tribute to Ledger on Dancing With the Stars.<\/p>\n

(Buena Vista\/Everett Collection)<\/p>\n

Stiles has previously spoken fondly of working with Ledger, describing him as “such a bright light” in a January 2025 interview with E! News<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

The DWTS tribute will come one week after Stiles revisited another movie moment<\/a> on the dance floor.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The pair earned 33 out of 40 points from the judges, their highest score of the season so far.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

Stiles will be among 10 celebrities paying tribute to people and places that hold special meaning for them.<\/p>\n

Jenna Dewan will honor her mother, Nancy, with a Viennese waltz to “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers.\u00a0But her dance will be performed with substitute partner Alan Bersten rather than Val Chmerkovskiy.<\/p>\n

Chmerkovskiy was benched for the week<\/a> 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<\/a> slap. “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night,” Chmerkovskiy wrote, a nod to the sitcom character that propelled Smith’s career.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

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.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

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+.<\/p>\n