Heath Ledger secured his 10 Things I Hate About You position earlier than he spoke a single phrase.

As Gil Junger, the director of the beloved 1999 teen rom-com, works to get a trilogy of follow-up movies off the bottom, he recollects to Leisure Weekly how and why he forged a then-unknown Ledger as brooding highschool unhealthy boy Patrick Verona.

"Actors at all times wished to know, 'What did he do? What did he do to make you forged him?'" Junger says. "He was magic."

He continues: "The reality of the matter is we had been casting and he walked into the room, and I'm very choosy. I had already learn 253 guys — 253 guys! After which Marcia Ross, the pinnacle of Disney casting, mentioned, 'Look, this subsequent child, I don't know him. It's a favor for an agent I respect. So if he's no good, simply cease it and ship him on his approach.'"

However when Ledger walked into the room, he made an instantaneous impression.

"Don't overlook, I've been casting for months and didn’t have the man but," Junger remembers. "And that is the God's sincere reality, on my mother and father' life: He took three steps into the room, and my thought was, 'If this f—er can learn English, I'm going to forged him.'"

Earlier than Ledger had spoken a line of dialogue, he exuded an vitality that Junger knew was an ideal match for the film's romantic lead.

"He simply had a magnetism in contrast to I've ever felt. It was simple," the filmmaker says. "If there's outdated souls, he will need to have been centuries outdated as a result of he simply had a approach about him that — he was solely 17, and but he simply was so assured and loving and wished to be the most effective he may very well be. He was simply an unimaginable younger man."

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For the uninitiated, 10 Issues stars Ledger as a mysterious Padua Excessive senior who’s bribed by fellow scholar Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to courtroom their abrasive classmate Kat (Julia Stiles) in a twisted Shakespearean ploy supposed to get Kat's youthful sister, Bianca (Larisa Oleynik), permission thus far.

10 Issues I Hate About You marked a breakout position for Ledger, who made a giant impression on audiences as a romantic lead who recites poetry, engages in paintball warfare, and even serenades Kat in one of many movie's most memorable scenes. Ledger would solidify his standing with motion pictures like A Knight's Tale, Brokeback Mountain, and finally The Dark Knight, for which he gained a posthumous Oscar in 2009. (Ledger died at 28 in 2008.)

Junger says he so loved spending time with Ledger whereas engaged on 10 Issues that he instructed his driver to choose the actor up first after which get him, so they might journey to set collectively.

He additionally remembers Ledger's first day on set. "He was carrying Frye boots from the '70s, after which he had on these worn-out olive inexperienced leather-based pants, a white leather-based belt, some loopy shirt, and a hat like a beanie," Junger says with amusing. "And I checked out him and I assumed, 'God, he's cool.' After which I additionally thought, 'If I wore a kind of items of clothes, I might be the laughing inventory of everybody that is aware of me.'"

Junger provides, "He simply had this magic the place you could possibly simply throw something on him, possibly even paint it, and he'd be amazingly cool, as a result of the child you noticed within the film, that's who he was. He was simply a tremendous human."

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Junger is hoping to keep the 10 Things legacy alive with 10 Issues I Hate About Relationship, a non secular successor telling a brand new love story between a pair of adversaries-turned-lovers. Whereas he intends to keep up the "identical mix of coronary heart and humor" as the unique film, Junger says he averted pursuing a direct sequel out of respect for Ledger's reminiscence.

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