10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy directed by Gil Junger (in his directorial debut) from a screenplay by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith. Loosely inspired by and based on William Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew, it stars Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, Larry Miller, Andrew Keegan, David Krumholtz, Susan May Pratt, and Gabrielle Union.
In the film, high-school student Cameron James (Gordon-Levitt) is unable to date sophomore Bianca Stratford (Oleynik) until her asocial feminist senior sister Kat (Stiles) dates, leading to Cameron recruiting bad boy classmate Patrick Verona (Ledger) to date Kat.
Development on 10 Things I Hate About You began once Lutz and Smith completed the screenplay in November 1997, with Junger attached to direct soon after. He sought to cast lesser profile actors for the film's lead roles; Stiles joined after several actors declined the role, while Ledger was cast three-and-a-half week prior to the start of principal photography, which took place between June and August 1998 in Tacoma and Seattle.
10 Things I Hate About You was theatrically released in the United States on 31 March 1999, by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its screenplay and Stiles', Ledger's and Gordon-Levitt's performances: the film became their breakthrough roles. It grossed $53.5 million worldwide. 10 Things I Hate About You gained praise in later years for its themes and characters, becoming considered a cult classic and as one of the best teen romantic comedies of all time.
Plot
Cameron James, a new student at Padua High School in the Seattle area, becomes smitten with beautiful and popular sophomore Bianca Stratford. Geeky Michael Eckman warns him she is vapid and conceited, and that her overprotective single father Walter, an obstetrician worried about teenage pregnancy, has forbidden her or her shrewish older sister Kat, a senior, to date until they graduate. Frustrated by Bianca's insistence and Kat's rebelliousness, Walter declares that Bianca may date only when Kat does, knowing Kat's unsocial attitude will make it very difficult.
When Cameron asks Bianca out, she informs him of her father's new rule and suggests he find someone willing to date Kat; unbeknownst to Cameron, Bianca wants to date affluent and popular senior Joey Donner.
Cameron selects Australian "bad boy" Patrick Verona. Michael convinces Joey to pay Patrick to ask out Kat. Patrick agrees, but Kat rebuffs his first few advances. After Michael and Cameron probe Bianca for information on Kat's likes and dislikes, he begins to win Kat's interest. Kat goes to a party with Patrick, enabling Bianca and her best friend Chastity Church to tag along.
At the party, Kat becomes upset upon seeing Bianca with Joey, responding by getting drunk. Patrick attends to her, and after leaving the party, she starts to open up to him, expressing her interest in forming a band. When Kat attempts to kiss him, Patrick pulls away, causing her to depart, infuriated and embarrassed. Meanwhile, Bianca upsets Cameron by ignoring him for Joey, but she soon realizes that Joey is shallow and self-absorbed. When she asks Cameron to drive her home, he calls her selfish for the way she treated him and says his feelings for her are true. Bianca kisses him before leaving.
Joey pays Patrick more money to take Kat to the prom so he can take Bianca. Although Kat is still angry with Patrick, he wins her over by serenading her with a performance of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Frankie Valli, and she returns the favor by helping him sneak out of detention. Their subsequent date turns romantic and they kiss, but she becomes suspicious when he insists she accompany him to the prom, which she adamantly opposes.
Irritated that Cameron has delayed asking her to the prom, Bianca accepts Joey's invitation, but Walter declines to allow it unless Kat accompanies her. Kat confesses to Bianca that she dated Joey when they were freshmen and, succumbing to peer pressure, had sex with him once and regretted it. After Joey dumped her, she vowed against doing things out of peer pressure, and stays unsocial to protect Bianca. Importantly, Kat's brief relationship with Joey happened close to the time in which Kat and Bianca's estranged mother left them.
Bianca insists that she should be able to have her own experiences, so Kat decides to go to the prom with Patrick. This lets Bianca go as well, and she attends the prom with Cameron instead of Joey. At the prom, Bianca learns from Chastity that Joey was planning to have sex with Bianca that night, and had made a bet about it with his friends. Angry that Bianca spurned him for Cameron, Joey confronts Patrick, revealing that he had paid Patrick to date Kat and leaving her heartbroken. Joey punches Cameron, but Bianca punches and beats him for hurting her, Kat, and Cameron.
The following day, Bianca reconciles with Kat, and is now officially dating Cameron. For an assignment in which the students were tasked to write their own versions of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 141, Kat reads aloud her version, entitled "10 Things I Hate About You", revealing that she still cares for Patrick. He surprises her with a Fender Stratocaster that he bought with the money Joey paid him, and confesses that he has fallen for her. Kat forgives him, and they reconcile with a kiss.
Cast Julia Stiles as Katarina "Kat" Stratford, the antisocial and shrewish older Stratford sister Heath Ledger as Patrick Verona, the Australian "bad boy" hired to date Kat Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cameron James, the new student at Padua High School who is smitten with Bianca and goes to great lengths to win her over Larisa Oleynik as Bianca Stratford, the superficial and popular younger Stratford sister Larry Miller as Walter Stratford, an obstetrician and single parent who is overprotective of his daughters Andrew Keegan as Joey Donner, an affluent and self-absorbed high school senior and aspiring model who intends to have sex with Bianca, and to that end pays Patrick to date Kat David Krumholtz as Michael Eckman, a geek who assists Cameron in his quest to woo Bianca, and in the process tries to woo Kat's friend Mandella Susan May Pratt as Mandella, Kat's only close friend and an aficionado of William Shakespeare who falls for Michael Daryl "Chill" Mitchell as Mr. Morgan, teacher of Kat, Patrick, and Joey's English class Allison Janney as Ms. Perky, Padua High School's guidance counselor and a writer of erotic literature David Leisure as Mr. Chapin, coach of the girls' soccer team Gabrielle Union as Chastity Church, Bianca's best friend who later becomes her enemy Greg Jackson as "Scurvy", a friend of Patrick Kyle Cease as Bogey Lowenstein, a golf enthusiast and member of a clique of aspiring MBAs The band Letters to Cleo (singer Kay Hanley, guitarists Greg McKenna and Michael Eisenstein, bassist Scott Riebling, and drummer Jason Sutter) appears as the band performing at Club Skunk, playing their songs "Come On" and "Co-Pilot", and a cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" on the school's rooftop during the closing credits. Hanley and Eisenstein also appear in the prom scene, performing a cover of Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind" with Save Ferris. The band Save Ferris (singer Monique Powell, guitarist Brian Mashburn, bassist Bill Uechi, trumpeter José Castellaños, trombonist Brian Williams, saxophonist Eric Zamora, and drummer Evan Kilbourne) appears as the band performing at the prom, playing their songs "I Know" and "Can't Stop" as well as covers of The Isley Brothers' "Shout" and Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind".
Production Background Writing duo Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith were inspired to write 10 Things I Hate About You after watching Clueless (1995). Being a fan of teen films, the pair set out to find a classic play or myth to turn it into a contemporary high-school movie, eventually settling on The Taming of the Shrew, a comedy by William Shakespeare. They wanted to write a strong-willed, feminist character. Patrick Verona was inspired by Judd Nelson's character in The Breakfast Club (1985). The script was finalized in November 1997. The screenplay was eventually picked up by The Walt Disney Company, with Gil Junger attached to direct.
Casting Junger was keen to find unknown actors for the movie. Josh Hartnett and Ashton Kutcher were in the running to play Patrick Verona. Eliza Dushku auditioned for the role of Kat Stratford. Katie Holmes was also considered for the role. Kate Hudson was offered the part but her mother, Goldie Hawn, did not like the script, so she passed on the role. Casting director Marcia Ross contacted Junger and recommended Julia Stiles for the role. Junger met her that evening and was "immediately taken"; after the 10 minute meeting, he gave her the role. Joseph Gordon-Levitt auditioned for the roles of Cameron and Michael, despite initial reluctance to act in a "high school film". The role of Michael eventually went to David Krumholtz and Gordon-Levitt was then offered the role of Cameron. Casting for Patrick Verona was a long process, with Andrew Lazar reporting he had seen over 1,000 boys for the role. Three and a half weeks before filming was due to start, Ross brought Heath Ledger into a casting session, and Junger was immediately inspired by him.
Filming Filming took place in 1998, between June 8 and August 6. Many of the scenes were filmed on location at Stadium High School and at a house in the North End of Tacoma, Washington. The prom sequence was shot over three days in Seattle. Ledger's singing scene in the high-school bleachers, regarded as one of the most iconic scenes of the movie, had just three takes. The song for the scene changed numerous times, almost being "I Touch Myself" by Australian rock band Divinyls, before "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Frankie Valli was settled on.
Costume designer Kimberly Tillman designed original dresses for Larisa Oleynik and Julia Stiles, as well as the period outfits for Susan May Pratt and David Krumholtz. Gabrielle Union's snakeskin prom dress is a Betsey Johnson design. Heath Ledger's and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's vintage tuxedos came from Isadora's in Seattle.
Reception Box office In its opening weekend, the film grossed $8.3 million in 2,271 theaters domestically, finishing second at the box office, behind The Matrix. It earned $21 million in the first five days of release. The movie grossed a total of $38.2 million in the U.S. and Canada, and $15.3 million in other territories, for $53.7 million worldwide.
Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 72% based on 93 reviews, with an average rating of The website's critics consensus states: "Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger add strong performances to an unexpectedly clever script, elevating 10 Things (slightly) above typical teen fare." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.