Buena Vista/Courtesy Everett Heath Ledgersecured his10 Things I Hate About Yourole before he spoke a single word. As Gil Junger, the director of the beloved 1999 teen rom-com, works to geta trilogy of follow-up filmsoff the ground, he recalls toEntertainment Weeklyhow and why he cast a then-unknown Ledger as brooding high school bad boy Patrick Verona. "Actors always wanted to know, 'What did he do? What did he do to make you cast him?'" Junger says. "He was magic." He continues: "The truth of the matter is we were casting and he walked into the room, and I'm very picky. I had already read 253 guys — 253 guys! And then Marcia Ross, the head of Disney casting, said, 'Look, this next kid, I don't know him. It's a favor for an agent I respect. So if he's no good, just stop it and send him on his way.'" Buena Vista/Getty But when Ledger walked into the room, he made an immediate impression. "Don't forget, I've been casting for months and did not have the guy yet," Junger remembers. "And this is the God's honest truth, on my parents' life: He took three steps into the room, and my thought was, 'If this f---er can read English, I'm going to cast him.'" Before Ledger had spoken a line of dialogue, he exuded an energy that Junger knew was a perfect fit for the movie's romantic lead. "He just had a magnetism unlike I've ever felt. It was undeniable," the filmmaker says. "If there's old souls, he must have been centuries old because he just had a way about him that — he was only 17, and yet he just was so confident and loving and wanted to be the best he could be. He was just an incredible young man." For the uninitiated,10 Thingsstars Ledger as a mysterious Padua High senior who is bribed by fellow student Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to court their abrasive classmate Kat (Julia Stiles) in a twisted Shakespearean ploy intended to get Kat's younger sister, Bianca (Larisa Oleynik), permission to date. 10 Things I Hate About Youmarked a breakout role for Ledger, who made a big impression on audiences as a romantic lead who recites poetry, engages in paintball warfare, and evenserenades Katin one of the film's most memorable scenes. Ledger would solidify his status with movies likeA Knight's Tale,Brokeback Mountain, and eventuallyThe Dark Knight, for which hewon a posthumous Oscarin 2009. (Ledger died at 28 in 2008.) Junger says he so enjoyed spending time with Ledger while working on10 Thingsthat he instructed his driver to pick the actor up first and then get him, so they could ride to set together. He also remembers Ledger's first day on set. "He was wearing Frye boots from the '70s, and then he had on these worn-out olive green leather pants, a white leather belt, some crazy shirt, and a hat like a beanie," Junger says with a laugh. "And I looked at him and I thought, 'God, he's cool.' And then I also thought, 'If I wore one of those pieces of clothing, I would be the laughing stock of everyone that knows me.'" Junger adds, "He just had this magic where you could just throw anything on him, maybe even paint it, and he'd be amazingly cool, because the kid you saw in the movie, that's who he was. He was just an amazing human." Want more movie news? Sign up forEntertainment Weekly's free newsletterto get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more. Junger is hoping tokeep the10 Thingslegacy alivewith10 Things I Hate About Dating, a spiritual successor telling a new love story between a pair of adversaries-turned-lovers. While he intends to maintain the "same blend of heart and humor" as the original movie, Junger says he avoided pursuing a direct sequel out of respect for Ledger's memory. Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly
