Julia Stiles Asked Michelle Williams to Approve Heath Ledger 'DWTS' Tribute
Seven Lights
Julia Stiles confirmed to Extra that she asked Michelle Williams for permission before honoring Heath Ledger on “Dancing With the Stars,” according to US Magazine and Variety. “I did ask Michelle if this was OK,” Stiles, 45, told Extra following Dedication Night on Tuesday, October 20 — the date Billboard gave for the episode — adding, “She said yes,” US Magazine reported.
Tuesday’s episode featured each celebrity contestant paying tribute to someone important from their lives, US Magazine reported. Stiles and her professional partner Ezra Sosa performed a contemporary routine set to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” which Ledger’s character sang to Stiles in “10 Things I Hate About You,” the 1999 film they made together, according to US Magazine; Variety reported the routine, set to Frankie Valli’s “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” paid homage to the film. The judges gave the pair their highest score of the season thus far, 36 out of 40 points, US Magazine reported.
Stiles was joined on stage by fellow “10 Things I Hate About You” cast members Gabrielle Union, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, Susan May Pratt and Andrew Keegan, and the film’s writers, Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, watched from the DWTS studio, US Magazine reported. “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,” Stiles said, according to US Magazine. “The web got cast and everybody kinda said, ‘I’ll do it if everybody else does it.’ And that was it!” “10 Things” alum David Krumholtz was absent from the reunion because he was shooting a movie in New York, though he said he’d “have loved, loved, loved to have been there,” US Magazine reported; Variety also reported that Krumholtz explained why he missed the reunion associated with the tribute.
“It was important to me that, in the music and in the dance, that we have the somber tribute to him because, obviously, he’s passed away and he’s no longer with us,” Stiles said in a TikTok livestream cited by US Magazine. “But also that scene brings so much joy to people. And his energy in it, I wanted to have musically and in terms of the choreography. We want to have the joyful celebration of when he was around.” She added: “I have so many great memories [of Heath], but I’m also sad because I really wish that 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.”
Ledger died in his New York City loft in January 2008 following an accidental overdose, at age 28, US Magazine reported; he had one child, daughter Matilda, shared with ex-partner Williams, and Billboard noted that Ledger shared a daughter with Williams. Stiles and Sosa advanced to next week’s Horror Night, in which they will perform a routine in honor of Halloween, and “Dancing With the Stars” airs on ABC and Disney+ on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET, US Magazine reported.