JULIA STILES COULD HAVE DEDICATED HER ‘DWTS’ PERFORMANCE TO HEATH LEDGER WITHOUT ASKING ANYONE — BUT SHE CHOSE TO CONTACT MICHELLE WILLIAMS FIRST, AND THAT QUIET DECISION MAKES THE TRIBUTE EVEN MORE EMOTIONAL. More than two decades after 10 Things I Hate About You made Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger an unforgettable on-screen pairing, the actress found herself revisiting memories of her late co-star through dance. Before bringing that tribute to television, however, Julia wanted to make sure she had the blessing of someone who shared a deeply personal connection with Heath. Her decision to reach out to Michelle Williams, the mother of Ledger’s daughter, revealed just how carefully she approached the emotional performance.

Julia Stiles made quite a few phone calls to organize the 10 Things I Hate About You reunion honoring Heath Ledger, and the first was to Michelle Williams.

Ahead of “Dedication Night” on Dancing With the Stars, the actress reached out to Williams, the mother of Ledger’s daughter Matilda, to ask “if this was okay,” Stiles told Extra. “And she said, ‘yes.’”

But as for the rest of the Ledger family in Australia, she admitted, “I don’t really want to speak for them.”

Williams and Ledger met while making Brokeback Mountain in 2004, and the following year, Matilda was born. The couple ultimately split in the fall of 2007, and just months later the 28-year-old actor died of an accidental drug overdose.

For Stiles, honoring her costar was emotional yet “very transformative,” she told Extra after dancing to Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” the song Ledger’s character serenades her with in the 1999 teen rom-com, 10 Things I Hate About You.

“I was like balling the first day of rehearsals because of all the nostalgia and the memories,” she revealed, “but also because I was… bumping up against something.”

Her professional partner, Ezra Sosa, was sensitive to what she was going through. “He clocked it and he changed the concept or the way that we thought about the dance in a way that really opened me up, and I’m forever grateful,” Stiles continued.

Reuniting the cast of the film 27 years later was much easier for Stiles.

“It was a group conversation with the producers when we talked about dedicating it to Heath, we needed to find somebody to represent the movie to join us on stage,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “And I was like, well, it has to be the whole cast, can’t just be one person, ‘cause we were a pack.”

Stiles called Joseph Gordon-Levitt first, followed by Larisa Oleynik, who played her sister in the movie. “And then Gabby [Union], Susan [May Pratt], [Andrew] Keegan,” she recalled to Entertainment Tonight. “Everybody was kind of like, ‘I’ll do it if everybody else does it!’ So it just took one. And it was so special to have them here.”

While rehearsing with Sosa, Stiles opened up to her partner about Ledger and his impact on her at such a young age.

“I learned a lot from Heath. He was so authentic,” she said on DWTS. “I was so charmed by him. I see pictures from that time like, ‘Wow, it was so easy with him.’ I have so many great memories, but I’m also sad because I really wish that I could pick up the phone and be like, ‘Hey dude.’”