Harry and Sally from When Harry Met Sally. Jack and Rose from Titanic. Noah and Allie from The Notebook. Woody Harrelson and Twinkies from Zombieland. These are just some of the great onscreen romances in the history of film.
But if you walked into the GOAT office and asked us about the greatest film romance ever, we will immediately name Heath Ledger’s Patrick Verona and Julia Stiles’ Kat Stratford from 10 Things I Hate About You. Everything from their awkward initial interactions to Kat’s heartwrenching poem at the end is just perfect and we have no hesitating naming them our OTP (one true pairing).
However, there was a moment when someone else was destined to win Heath’s heart instead of Julia.
Yup, totally.
In a new New York Times retrospective piece about 10 Things I Hate About You on the eve of its 20th anniversary, it was revealed that the film’s casting director, Marcia Ross, originally screen-tested a bunch of different young couples for the parts of Kat and Patrick.
“We screen-tested Josh Hartnett, Eliza Dushku, Heath and Julia. But Julia and Heath just had the best chemistry together. I loved Katie Holmes. She was about to get Dawson’s Creek, and we had to make a decision really fast.”
But while Julia ultimately got the role of Kat, apparently Kate Hudson was actually offered role originally. However, her mother, Goldie Hawn, ultimately turned the role down on Kate’s behalf because she didn’t like the script.
“The other person I loved was Kate Hudson. But her mom [Goldie Hawn] didn’t like the script for her, so she passed.”
We have only one reaction to that bombshell about Kate passing on 10 Things I Hate About You:
And to diss Kate or anything, but Julia and Heath were just perfect (as the casting director immediately noticed) and while Kate wouldn’t have been a bad choice, it just wouldn’t have been the same.
Don’t feel bad for her though because she promptly got cast in Almost Famous, which was great and suited her far better than 10 Things I Hate About You.
And besides, the thought of Heath singing “Cant Take My Eyes Off You” to Kate instead of Julia is just wrong.
You wouldn’t be singing that if it was Kate Hudson instead of Julia Stiles.
20 years on, we’re still firmly team Kat and Pat, and it’s all credit to the pitch-perfect pairing of Heath and Julia.
The fact that we’re still talking about the duo as film’s OTP is a testament to the great job everyone did on 10 Things I Hate About You, especially the casting director.
We also learned that Goldie Hawn perhaps isn’t the best judge of good scripts, but hey, it all worked out in the end for everyone.