Trivia / 10 Things I Hate About You

• Actor Allusion: Bianca is wearing a white hoodie with two angels on it near the end. This is a reference to an AT&T commercial Larisa Oleynik starred in - where a boy photoshops her head onto a picture of a cherub.
• Actor-Inspired Element: It was Julia Stiles' idea for Patrick to sing "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" on the football field.
• Actor-Shared Background: They worked in Heath Ledger's Australian background to be an actual part of the character, including having Kat ask him if the accent was real or faked.
• Approval of God: The ex-boyfriend (named Anthony) who inspired the title loved the film. Says Karen McCullah...
  "We're still friends today. And every now and then I'll get a random phone call in the middle of night: 'My nephew doesn't believe that this title is about me. Tell him.' On the phone, I'm like, 'Yes, I hated Anthony in high school.'"
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Julia Stiles claims she wanted to be in the film as soon as she saw how feisty the lead character was.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Julia Stiles had auditioned to play Bianca and got cast as Kat instead. Larisa Oleynik, who played Bianca, apparently really wanted to be Kat.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • The talent show episode may have been created so Meaghan Martin could sing.
  • Cameron learns French in order to tutor Bianca. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fluent in French.
• Dawson Casting: Some of the supporting cast: Gabrielle Union (Chastity) and Susan May Pratt (Mandella) were 27 and 25, respectively.
• Deleted Role: Gil Junger wrote a part for himself as a teacher, but the scenes were deleted.
• Follow the Leader: This is a Setting Update of a classic work of literature, set in an American high school, following the lead of Clueless.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Kat rejecting Patrick at the lockers then the camera zooms in on his grinning face *swoon*.
• One-Take Wonder:
  • The then-17 year old Julia Stiles slowly broke down into tears while reading the poem on the very first take, an acting cue that was not in the film's script. First-time director Gil Junger was so moved, he called a wrap to the shoot after that.
  • The Oner playing over the end credits with Letters to Cleo performing on the roof had to be done in one take because it cost $500,000 every time the helicopter took off.
• Reality Subtext: Kat gets accepted to Sarah Lawrence College. Larisa Oleynik (Bianca) went to Sarah Lawrence.
• Recycled: The Series: Although directed by the original director of the film as well.
• Role Reprise: Larry Miller reprises his role in in the series as Kat and Bianca’s dad, Walter.
• Romance on the Set:
  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt dated both Larissa Oleynik and Julia Stiles after filming... not at the same time. The main cast apparently became fairly close friends, regardless.
  • Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger were briefly involved too.
• Star-Making Role: Both for Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. Joseph Gordon Levitt was already known for 3rd Rock from the Sun, but this gave him a big boost.
• Stillborn Franchise: In the early 2010s Junger wrote and began filming 10 Things I Hate About Life, that would "advance situations" from the original but have entirely different characters, suggesting that a series of romcoms with that shared title might be in the offing. Filming began in late 2012 with Evan Rachel Wood and Thomas McDonnell as a couple who Meet Cute while ... attempting suicide. Filming stopped after a few months when Wood got pregnant and the president of the production company resigned. A few more weeks went in the can a year later, but then Wood left, saying she hadn't gotten paid what she should have by then, and the production company sued her. About 30 minutes were done, enough to make a trailer to attract more investment, but as of 2021 it's pretty clear this version of the film, at least, will never be finished.
• Throw It In!:
  • Stiles's tears during the poetry reading scene were apparently unscripted, as was the brief shot of Ledger playing with the Bunsen burner near the opening of the film.
  • Karen McCullah claims the title was based off a diary entry she made during high school about a boyfriend she hated. When she and Kirsten Smith were writing the script, they looked over the entry and went "that's our title".
  • Julia Stiles supposedly improvised the table dance during the party scene. According to legend, the producers of Save the Last Dance were impressed when they saw it, which led to Stiles being offered the lead role in that film.
• Typecasting: This would be the first of three modernized Shakespeare adaptations Julia Stiles would star in - the others being "O" (Othello) and the 2000 version of Hamlet.
• Underage Casting: Minor example. Kat is two years older than Bianca. Julia Stiles is only three months older than Larisa Oleynik.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Josh Hartnett and Ashton Kutcher were the final candidates for the role of Patrick Verona before the casting of Heath Ledger.
  • The original script had a much darker tone as Mandella would make several references to suicide attempts for instance.
  • The Stratford mother was a character in early drafts. She would be distant, ignoring her daughters' unhappiness and focused on writing romance novels. The character was retooled into Mrs Perky, and lines of dialogue imply the mother left the family.
  • The song Patrick sings to Kat was originally going to be "I Think I Love You", but they had to pick a different one since Scream 2 was using it for a similar scene.
  • The character description for Kat in the script said she wore glasses to downplay her own beauty.
  • Scenes that appear in the script but not in the finished film:
    • The gag in the club scene - where the music stops as Patrick calls Kat sexy - was added in during filming. There was also another scene scripted afterwards between Kat and Mandella, where the latter wishes William Shakespeare was there to witness the "rebirth of punk rock with us".
    • Another Miss Perky scene, where she expresses horror that Patrick and Kat know each other, and warns him away from her - saying "If you two ever decided to breed, evil would truly walk the earth."
    • The scene before Bogey's party had Kat fully intending to go and pretending not to just to Troll Bianca. In the final film, it looks as though she's serious about not going and only agrees when Bianca begs.

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