In 2020, Joseph Gordon-Levitt sat down with Vanity Fair to discuss his screen career. The conversation inevitably led to him talking about "10 Things I Hate About You," and Gordon-Levitt took the opportunity to share what his initial reaction was to the film's script, saying, "I'll be honest, I was not sold on doing '10 Things I Hate About You 'when I first read the script. I was like, 'I don't wanna do one of these high school romantic comedies. I want to do serious movies.' That's all I wanted to do when I was that age."
Eventually, Gordon-Levitt was persuaded by his representatives and loved ones into auditioning for the film. While he originally wanted to play Michael as well, a role that was later filled by David Krumholtz, Gordon-Levitt was ultimately offered the part of Cameron Jones. Fortunately, based on his more recent comments about the film, it sounds like Gordon-Levitt is happy that he ended up starring in it, too.
During a 2022 appearance on "The Jess Cagle Show," Gordon-Levitt even shared his thoughts on why he believes "10 Things I Hate About You" works as well as it does. "I think a big part of why audiences really like it so much is because we really were all having a great time. All of us. We all made friends. We all hung out every night," Gordon-Levitt recalled. "I think a lot of that friendship and chemistry that you see on-screen [in the film], it comes off like that because it was pretty real."
Odds are, fans of "10 Things I Hate About You" will likely agree with Gordon-Levitt's assessment of the film and, in specific, the chemistry between its charismatic stars.
