Julia Stiles Is ‘Crying’ at ‘DWTS’ Rehearsals Ahead of Heath Ledger Tribute: ‘Bringing Back So Many Memories’

Julia Stiles’ tribute to her “10 Things I Hate About You” co-star Heath Ledger on “Dancing With the Stars” next week is sure to be a teary-eyed performance.

“I was crying in rehearsals today,” Stiles told me Thursday at the InStyle Imagemaker Awards in Los Angeles. “It’s so crazy.”

It was revealed earlier this week that Stiles and her professional partner Ezra Sosa will perform to Frankie Valli’s 1967 song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” during “DWTS” Dedication Night. In “10 Things I Hate About You,” Ledger’s character serenades Stiles with the song.

“I know that Dedication Night is emotional, but I thought I was distanced from it enough. Like, oh, it was so many years ago,” Stiles said. “Something about seeing clips from that movie and images and hearing my voice and hearing his voice is bringing back so many memories. It’s a lot.”

Dedication Night airs on ABC on Oct. 20.

“One of the things that I’m taking away from this dedication is one of the things that we really hope to do as performers is to make people feel something and have people care about the work that you do, and his memory lives on because it was such an incredible performance,” Stiles said.

Stiles also said that “DWTS” producers had asked her to compete on the show for the past couple of years before she finally agreed to do it.

“I think it was turning 45,” she explained. “I was like, ‘I’m halfway to 90! Why not? It’s now or never.’ I knew that there were going to be emotional hurdles that I’m going to have to get over on this show, like getting over my own nerves, finding my love of performing again, being able to dance in front of an audience, all these things.”

And then Stiles deadpanned, “I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe I should tackle that in front of millions and millions of people.’”