Julia Stiles on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ performs ’10 Things’ tribute

There was perhaps not a dry eye in the house during Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa’s Dedication Night dance on Tuesday’s episode of “Dancing with the Stars.”

Stiles, who rose to fame as feisty teenager Kat Stratford in the 1999 rom-com “10 Things I Hate About You,” set and filmed in the Seattle area, performed a contemporary dance tribute to her late co-star Heath Ledger, who died in 2008 at 28. 

Stiles and pro dancer Sosa performed to a live rendition of Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” It was this song with which Ledger’s character serenaded Stiles at Tacoma’s Stadium High School in one of the movie’s most memorable scenes. The movie also filmed scenes at Lake Union, Kerry Park, the Paramount Theatre and more. 

The dancing pair incorporated some of Ledger’s moves from the movie scene, and Stiles wore a deep blue dress reminiscent of her character’s prom look in the movie. 

But the waterworks intensified at the end of her performance, when a voice-over of Stiles’ monologue at the end of the movie played. Stiles walked toward a photo of herself and Ledger from the movie and laid a rose on the stage as the words played: “I hate it that you’re not around. And the fact that you didn’t call. But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you — not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.”

As the camera panned back to Stiles, fellow “10 Things I Hate About You” castmates Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gabrielle Union, Andrew Keegan, Susan May Pratt and Larisa Oleynik joined her in an emotional reunion.