Before Julia Stiles dedicated her Dancing with the Stars performance to her late 10 Things I Hate About You co-star Heath Ledger, she made one very important phone call. Stiles revealed to Extra TV that she asked Michelle Williams for permission first, and Williams said yes. The result was one of the most emotional nights of the season, complete with a surprise cast reunion and one notable absence that David Krumholtz has now explained.
The question Julia asked first
The tribute aired during the October 20, 2026 “Dedication Night” episode of Dancing with the Stars Season 35 on ABC, according to Variety. In a post-show interview with Extra TV, Stiles shared that she didn’t take the idea lightly.
“I did ask Michelle if this was OK, and she said yes,” Stiles told Extra TV.
Williams and Ledger dated from 2004 to 2007 after meeting on the set of Brokeback Mountain, and they share a daughter, Matilda, born in October 2005. Ledger died on January 22, 2008, at age 28, from an accidental overdose of prescription medications.
Stiles was careful about the limits of what she could say. When Extra TV asked about Ledger’s wider family, she declined to speak on their behalf. “I don’t really want to speak for them,” she said.
What she was happy to talk about was who Ledger was to her and the rest of the young cast. “He was just a beacon of light. He was the leader of the pack of those of us kids,” Stiles told Extra TV.
Recreating the bleacher scene
If you were a teenager in 1999 (or have watched the movie on repeat since), you already know the moment. In 10 Things I Hate About You, Ledger’s character serenades Stiles’ character from the stadium bleachers with Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” marching band and all. It’s one of the most beloved rom-com gestures ever put on film.
According to Variety, Stiles and her pro partner Ezra Sosa built their contemporary routine around that very song, recreating the bleacher serenade on the ballroom floor. The judges clearly felt it too. Variety reported the pair earned a 36 out of 40 for the performance.
Getting there wasn’t easy emotionally. Speaking to Variety on October 16 at the InStyle Imagemaker Awards, days before the episode aired, Stiles admitted the rehearsals were hitting hard.
“I was crying in rehearsals today. It’s so crazy,” she told Variety, adding that hearing Ledger’s voice in clips was “bringing back so many memories.”
The reunion (and the one who couldn’t make it)
Here’s where things got extra sweet. Stiles wasn’t alone on that stage. Variety reported she was joined by her 10 Things co-stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, Gabrielle Union, Andrew Keegan, and Susan May Pratt.
That lineup didn’t happen by accident. Stiles told Variety after the performance that she personally reached out to each cast member and “begged them, each and every one of them” to show up. In her mind, there was no other way to do it.
“It has to be the whole cast. Can’t just be one person, it’s got to be everybody,” she told Extra TV.
Fans quickly noticed one face missing, though: David Krumholtz, who played Michael, the lovable nerdy best friend to Gordon-Levitt’s Cameron. Stiles addressed it right away in a post-show chat with Entertainment Tonight, as cited by Variety.
“David Krumholtz, we wanted him here. He wanted to be here, but he’s working on an HBO show in New York, so there was no way he could fly to Los Angeles,” she told ET.
The morning after the episode, Krumholtz offered his own explanation in an Instagram video, Deadline reported. He said he was filming a movie in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York and simply couldn’t make the trip to LA.
“I am here shooting a film. I could not be in LA for Dancing with the Stars last night,” he said in the video.
He also couldn’t resist a little self-deprecating humor. According to Deadline, Krumholtz joked that his freshly shaved head “would have been weird” to show on TV next to his young-looking co-stars. He was quick to clarify, though, that his new look was not the reason he skipped the reunion. So no, Michael didn’t bail over a haircut.
Krumholtz saved his most heartfelt words for the tribute itself. “Julia’s tribute to my dear friend, who I miss every single day, was amazing and stunning, and I’m so proud of her,” he said in the video, per Deadline.
Stiles saw it and responded with exactly the energy you’d hope for. Deadline reported she commented on his post: “We love you Krumholtz!”
More than 25 years after that bleacher scene, it’s clear the 10 Things gang still shows up for each other, whether that means flying to a ballroom in Los Angeles or cheering from a film set in the Catskills. And for Stiles, it started with a respectful question to Michelle Williams and a yes that made the whole night possible.
