No matter how much time passes, I always find my way back to 10 Things I Hate About You .
It’s an incredible movie that represents some of the very best elements of ’90s filmmaking.
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To celebrate and honor this incredible movie, be sure to check out these 10+ behind the scenes secrets about 10 Things I Hate About You that fans didn’t know!
1. Absolutely no sets were used in the entire movie.
Everything that you see in the movie is a real-life location. Everything from the houses, the gymnasium, right down to the campus itself.
It really helps to give the film an authentic feel.
2. The film is actually a modern re-telling of a classic Shakespearean play.
The impact of The Bard is still being felt, even to this day. 10 Things I Hate About You is a reimagining of The Taming of the Shrew .
There are even direct quotes from the play dispersed throughout the film.
3. Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles were dating while filming.
Normally, this would be a recipe for disaster. But much to their credit, Heath and Julia never let their feelings for one another interfere with their work.
They broke up in early 2000.
4. The scene where Kat reads her poem aloud to the class was filmed in only one take!
Not only that but apparently the tears that Julia Stiles cries are actually real! They weren’t scripted either, so her reaction is 100% sincere.
I’m the first one to admit that I am not a Julia Stiles fan, but this scene is acting at its finest.
5. The title for the film came from a real-life diary entry that screenwriter Karen McCullah wrote in high school.
“I had a boyfriend named Anthony that I was frequently unhappy with. I made a list called Things I Hate About Anthony.”
6. David Krumholtz had to teach Andrew Keegan how to draw genitals on his face.
“I remember having to teach Andrew Keegan how to draw a proper [expletive] on my face. Which was a little strange to have to do?”
It does seem a bit insulting, but that’s show business!
7. Joseph Gordon-Levitt isn’t really that bad at French.
In the film, Cameron has no idea how to speak French, but he pretends to be a tutor so that he can get closer to Bianca.
Which is ironic, considering that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fluent .
8. Julia Stiles’ dance moves in the film helped land her most iconic role.
Remember that drunken table dance scene at the house party? Well, that’s the precise moment that secured Julia the lead role in Save The Last Dance .
If you haven’t seen the film, it’s easily one of the most overhyped movies of the 2000s.
9. No joke: that really is an actual high school in the film.
I know it looks more like an English University, but the location is actually Stadium High School in Tacoma, Washington.
Originally, the building was designed as a hotel but after a fire ravaged the site, it was repurposed as a school.
10. Even more references to Shakespeare!
Many characters in the film share a common name with their literary counterparts. For example:
Bianca and Kat’s last name is Stratford, which is the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Patrick’s last name is Verona, the city where Petruchio is from. Also, their high school is called Padua, which is the city where the play takes place!
11. Heath Ledger based his character Patrick on Petruchio.
Petruchio is Patrick’s counterpart in The Taming of the Shrew .
Ledger said that Patrick is based on Richard Burton’s version of the legendary character, with a little Jack Nicholson thrown in for kicks!
12. According to David Krumholtz, the entire cast became fast friends and incredibly close.
David said that one of the reasons that he believes the film did so well was the on-set chemistry.
When speaking of his co-star, David said “Joseph Gordon-Levitt turned me on to Phish, and I turned him on to Wu-Tang .”
David went on to say that things only got better once Heath Ledger arrived on set.
“The group, with Heath, only got stronger. Before I knew it, the cast was experiencing what I’ve since found to be all too rare: a unified chemistry throughout the ensemble, without a single bad apple in the bunch. We all agreed that we were having the best summer of our lives.”
13. This was Heath Ledger’s first American movie.
10 Things I Hate About You helped launch Heath into the upper stratosphere of Hollywood’s elite .
Heath would go on to star in the wildly successful A Knight’s Tale , Brokeback Mountain , and finally, The Dark Knight .
14. Julia Stiles has excellent musical taste.
Easily one of the most iconic scenes in the entire film is when Heath Ledger rigs the loudspeakers in the stadium to play ” I Love You Baby ” by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
We have Julia Stiles to thank since she was the one who suggested the track!
15. Ashton Kutcher and Josh Hartnett were considered for Heath Ledger’s role.
While both of those actors are very good at what they do, I personally cannot imagine anyone in the role of Patrick other than Heath Ledger.
I think that movie turned out perfectly the way it is.
16. Julia Stiles’ favorite scene to shoot was most people’s favorite scene.
Not surprisingly, it is the scene where Heath Ledger sings to her from the stadium steps.
“My favorite memory of that day – the whole day, was just phenomenal,” she said about the scene.
“I mean, like, running up and down those stadium steps and nobody knew he had this amazing voice. He just went full out and I got to watch it.”
It must have been such a beautiful moment for the cast and crew to witness!
17. There are actually 11 things that Kat hates about Patrick.
Technically there are actually 14 things if you listen closely to the poem, but the way it’s structured makes it seem like there are 10.
But even when you break it down and take out some of her more general lines, there are still more than 10!
Here are all 11:
I hate the way you talk to me. And the way you cut your hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare. I hate your big dumb combat boots. And the way you read my mind. I hate it — I hate the way you’re always right. I hate it when you lie. I hate it when you make me laugh. Even worse when you make me cry. I hate it when you’re not around.
18. There was a spin-off show!
Unfortunately, the spin-off show of the same name didn’t last long on the network.
The show, which came out 10 years later, ended up being canceled after one season on the air.
19. Allison Janney, who played Ms. Perky, actually improvised her iconic line.
It’s always fun to find out that some of the most iconic lines of movies were never even in the script. This is one of those instances!
“I ad-libbed, ‘Kat. Meow,'” Janney told Buzzfeed.
“That was me.”
“I do that on some movies when I feel like the atmosphere is right and [director] Gil Junger was open to it and just let me do whatever I wanted to do. I was really thrilled about that one.”
