This is why Julia Stiles really cried during that poem-reading scene in “10 Things I Hate About You”

Remember the big, pivotal, titular moment in 10 Things I Hate About You, when Julia Stiles’ Kat Stratford reads the poem she wrote about Patrick (played by the very much missed Heath Ledger) and breaks down into tears (which leads most people watching to break down into tears)? It’s long been rumored that those tears weren’t just the result of acting, and in an interview with Cosmopolitan, Stiles confirmed that they in fact were not:

Even if she didn’t have something crazy going on in her life during shooting, we can see why she’d get emotional during the scene. It’s an emotional moment! It’s barely possible to watch it without shedding at least a few tears — we can’t imagine what it would be like to have to actually recite the poem.

Stiles also talked a bit about her 10 Things co-stars, adding that watching their careers unfold has been somewhat “bittersweet” after Ledger’s death, but shooting the movie was a “special experience.”

Watching the movie over (and over and over) again is also a special experience, Julia.