The cast of “10 Things I Hate About You” was in Tacoma, Wash., rehearsing for their upcoming film shoot, when latecomer — and then-unknown Australian actor — Heath Ledger arrived on set.
“I remember going to the elevator and it’s that moment where someone’s hand reaches around the corner and grabs the door,” Andrew Keegan, who played antagonist Joey Donner in the classic 1999 teen film, told Page Six in a recent interview. “This strapping young man walks in with long hair and he was carrying a didgeridoo, which at the time, I had no idea what it was.”
Keegan, now 40, explained the cast had been anticipating the late arrival of their leading man, who would play Patrick Verona, not knowing what to expect and only having seen a single black-and-white photo of Ledger. After Ledger died in 2008 from an accidental overdose, fans look back at “10 Things I Hate About You” as the film that launched the actor’s legacy.
“That was really Heath. The character of Patrick was, I think, the one project where he really, you saw that particular side of him,” Keegan told us. “Watching it now, it brings back those memories of how wise beyond his years he was and just really how incredibly fortunate we were to have him in the film and ultimately to have been a friend.”
According to Keegan, learning how to play Ledger’s didgeridoo, a large Australian wind instrument, became one of the cast’s favorite pastimes.
At 19 years old, Keegan was in the prime of his acting career. Fresh off the heels of recurring arcs on hit TV shows “Party of Five” and “7th Heaven,” Keegan landed his “10 Things I Hate About You” role in just one audition. He even showed up to his tryout at the Disney lot in Burbank, Calif., wearing a white tank top similar to the one Joey would consistently wear throughout the movie.
“It felt like it was a match made in heaven to play that role,” Keegan said.
Soon after, Keegan was sent up to Washington, where the film would shoot over a six-week period, along with co-stars including Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, David Krumholtz, Gabrielle Union and, of course, Ledger.
With most of the cast in their teens, Keegan says the hotel ended up moving them all to the same floor to decrease the noise and disruptions.
“I think what was special about this experience was that we all really got along and it’s not that often there’s a casting with like-minded individuals who wanted to share time with each other off set,” he recalled, adding they would all hang out in Gordon-Levitt and Krumholtz’s suite, which he dubbed the “party room.”
Keegan joked, “We needed to party together as research for the party scene, so it was just us being good actors and getting ready to film.”
Confirming a story that has been told multiple times over the film’s 20-year history, Keegan said Krumholtz did in fact have to teach him how to draw a penis for the scene in which Joey draws one on Krumholtz’s character Michael’s face, leading to the memorable line, “I have a d–k on my face, don’t I?”
“I don’t draw penises on a regular basis,” Keegan laughed. “It’s a unique skill set that David had, go figure. He helped, he was the creative director on that penis drawing.”
Keegan also went into detail about the big scene at the end of the film after Kat Stratford (Stiles) finds out Patrick is getting paid to date her, and Joey gets beaten up by her sister Bianca Stratford (Oleynik).
“Larisa was extremely nervous for some reason to do the [physical scene], the punching and the kicking, so as you’ll see in the movie, the take they ended up using was an actual … she connected, so that’s why it looks so real because it was,” Keegan said. “It made the scene that much better. So, in hindsight, I appreciate it. Thank you, Larisa, for punching me in the nose and kicking me in the nads.”
After filming ended, Keegan went back to Los Angeles, where his and Ledger’s friendship would continue to grow over the next year, during which both actors were unemployed, looking for their next roles and partying in Hollywood. According to Keegan, Ledger was days away from moving back to Australia when he landed a role in Mel Gibson’s “The Patriot.”
“Once he started to work, it was a lot different because he was always working and I was very proud of his achievement of success,” Keegan said. “At the time I was living in Venice … not necessarily reaching out, and I do wish that I would have more. You just kind of take it for granted that someone is always going to be there. So, he was working and traveling and it just wasn’t the most appropriate time to reach out, but I do know that any time that I did, it was just, it was like old times.”
Looking back, Keegan recalls one of the last times he really spoke with Ledger. He explained he’d called Ledger up for some advice after a breakup.
“We loved him so much … and I can’t even talk about it now,” Keegan said, his voice shaking. “I know he’s still here and that’s a thing that’s so unique. He has a presence to this day and based on whatever anybody believes in, his spirit is strong and that has proven itself many times. That’s a whole other level of personal, but I can say that I still do feel his presence in this world.”
These days, Keegan is focusing on fatherhood, which he said is “his greatest role.” His daughter Aiya Rose just turned 3 years old.
In 2014, Keegan co-founded a spiritual organization called Full Circle in Venice, Calif. In 2017, the organization shut its doors and has been on hiatus ever since.
He’s also working on developing a female-driven TV show and recently attended a 20th-anniversary screening and panel for “10 Things I Hate About You.”
“We were all just kids making a film, not ever really having any idea how significant this film would be,” he said. “I’m so grateful to be able to talk about it now and really reminisce … As I said earlier, it’s that presence of this experience, as we talk about this, I feel the spirit of Heath lives on.”
The cast of ’10 Things I Hate About You’ 20 years later:
