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10 Things I Hate About You Director Spills Tea About The REAL Love Triangle Behind The Scenes!

Among the class of ’90s Shakespeare retellings set in high school, 10 Things I Hate About You, is one of the most fondly remembered — largely because it’s when most of us fell in love with Heath Ledger for the first time ever.

But you know who didn’t? Julia Stiles. However, there was a secret real-life hookup behind the scenes of the teen rom com. And it turns out it’s actually pretty scandalous.

The film’s director, Gil Junger, appeared on the Spanish-language YouTube show Mirá a Quién Encontré (Look Who I Found), a few days back and told lots of great stories about the making of the film. But hidden in there he also made a stunning claim that’s just starting to make its way around the internet this week.

Photos: The Juiciest Celebrity Love Triangles

Sorry to burst any shipping bubbles, but those rumors that Julia and Heath’s chemistry was the result of the real thing? Totally debunked. But the filmmaker says Julia was in love with someone during filming. And as he recalls, their passion helped fuel the movie’s most pivotal scene, when Kat professes her love in the titular poem:

“That was maybe one of the most moving performances I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen plenty. It just killed me. It was so raw, and it was so honest, and it was so vulnerable. I even asked her — I said, ‘Where did that come from?’ And she told me, ‘I was just thinking about’ — that person’s name that she was deeply in love with at the time.”

That name? Joseph Gordon-Levitt! Junger says the romance on set was actually between the mismatched movie couple:

“She, for a minute or 10, went out with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. They were very, very attracted to each other, which was cool.”

The interviewer, a big fan, pointed out the two actors barely even shared a scene as they had different love interests in the film. Junger responded:

“I know, right? Isn’t that funny? She’s, like, professing her love to Heath, and she’s in love with the guy who’s waiting in his trailer to shoot the next scene. Yeah, but watching them, it was beautiful how much they enjoyed each other.”

Though the two characters are meant to be in different high school years, they were actually the same age, 18 years old, when the film came out.

Apparently some aspect of this got out even back then, though it was never confirmed. A 2001 Rolling Stone profile refers to JGL as Julia’s “old boyfriend” when mentioning they were both attending Columbia University. But she seemed to play down that aspect, saying:

“We’re friends. We say hello to each other.”

Was she trying to keep that on the DL?

See, here’s where it gets a little weird… We don’t know if Junger realized he was outing anyone by confirming this offscreen romance, but it may well have been a secret for a reason.

In case you didn’t know, Joseph Gordon-Levitt also dated his other co-star, Larisa Oleynik! This is more than rumor. The two were a well-known young Hollywood couple for like three years. She even made a meta guest appearance on his sitcom, 3rd Rock From The Sun. That reportedly lasted until 2002 — meaning they were still together when Rolling Stone was asking Julia about it.

So was the relationship with the Alex Mack star AFTER his 1-10 minute relationship with Julia? Did JGL split with Stiles to start dating her onscreen sister? Or was this a secret romance during the other relationship?? Hmm… More like 10 things we HAVE to know about this!

Who knew the juiciest love triangle was going on behind the scenes?! It’s definitely going to make us view the classic comedy in a whole new light, that’s for sure.

Ch-ch-check out the full interview with the film’s director for more — including the fantastic story of Heath Ledger’s audition (below)!

[Image via Disney+.]

The post <i>10 Things I Hate About You</i> Director Spills Tea About The REAL Love Triangle Behind The Scenes! appeared first on Perez Hilton.