Heath Ledger beat 250+ others for 10 Things I Hate About You

10 Issues I Hate About You was key late-’90s waiting for a few causes. One, it really made Shakespeare enjoyable (sorry, Baz!). However extra importantly, it launched or nurtured the careers of so a lot of a technology’s favourite faces: Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, and, in fact, Heath Ledger, who was one of many runaway stars of 10 Issues.

Casting the function of Patrick Verona – the unhealthy boy tasked to woo Stiles’ Kat in order that Oleynik’s Bianca so she will get a date of her personal – was one of many hardest jobs for the staff. And whereas tons of of men tried out for the half, as soon as Heath Ledger entered the room, 10 Issues director Gil Junger knew he was the one. As he informed Entertainment Weekly, “The truth of the matter is we were casting and he walked into the room, and I’m very picky. I had already read 253 guys — 253 guys! And then Marcia Ross, the head of Disney casting, said, ‘Look, this next kid, I don’t know him. It’s a favor for an agent I respect. So if he’s no good, just stop it and send him on his way.’”

Junger added that regardless of being a teen (a rarity in Hollywood, because it’s usually 20-somethings solid as excessive schoolers), Heath Ledger had the best persona to be the one to scale the bleachers in 10 Issues. “He just had a magnetism unlike I’ve ever felt. It was undeniable. If there’s old souls, he must have been centuries old because he just had a way about him that — he was only 17, and yet he just was so confident and loving and wanted to be the best he could be. He was just an incredible young man.”

After 10 Issues I Hate About You scored large on the field workplace, Heath Ledger’s profession was off. Quickly after, he was solid in The Patriot reverse Mel Gibson, main A Knight’s Story and co-starring in Monster’s Ball, all only a few years earlier than he would land his first Oscar nomination for Brokeback Mountain.

10 Issues I Hate About You remains to be so beloved 25+ years later that Junger is even growing a follow-up trilogy that’s set to function 10 Issues I Hate About Relationship, 10 Issues I Hate About Marriage and 10 Issues I Hate About Children. Junger has additionally supported the concept of paying homage to the late Heath Ledger – who died in 2008 – within the 10 Issues trilogy.