10 Things I Hate About You

A while ago, I told the story of the time I was an extra in the movie Prefontaine. Well, a few years later the talent agency came knockin’ again, asking us if we wanted to be extras in a teen movie called 10 Things I Hate About You. The movie was being filmed in Tacoma, WA with the majority of the scenes taking place at Stadium High School.

Stadium is an awesome school. It’s over 100 years old! It was initially being built as a luxury hotel in 1893, but it caught fire during construction and sat empty for years. The Tacoma School District bought it in 1904 and completed construction of the high school in 1910 with a circular lunchroom, an underground swimming pool, a science and industrial arts complex, a gymnasium, and a multi-story parking lot structure with tennis courts on the roof. The movie was supposed to be filmed in LA, just like every other movie, but when locations scouts saw this school, they moved the set. They thought it was perfect for their modern take on a Shakespearean play.

It was the summer of 1998 and unfortunately I wasn’t able to be in the movie because I had full time job. But my brother and sister were only 15 and 16 and they didn’t have anything to do all summer, so they jumped at the chance to work for a few weeks. So did about fifty of our friends and classmates, including my ex-boyfriend. He also had a real job (we were 19), so he only worked on the movie for about a week. There is a scene of him skateboarding in the quad, but I can’t find it. My brother is in a hallway scene, but I can’t find that either. My sister knows where everyone is in the movie, but I’m not about to call her over to watch it with me. Wow, this is a good story, huh? My sister is all over the place though. Take a look at a few of these opening scenes. She’s right there, in your face.

This is also her car in the final scene of the movie when they pan out from the parking lot.

Of course they got to meet the stars. My brother and sister both said Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles were very friendly and talked with the extras quite a bit. Gabrielle Union, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Andrew Keegan were nice, but kept to themselves. And Larisa Oleynik was kind of a bitch.

This is why 10 Things I Hate About You will always be one of my favorite movies, besides it being just a good movie. My sister finds it on VHS at garage sales and second hand stores then autographs them as gag gifts. People love it!

P.S. Can you believe Joseph Gordon-Levitt turned 30 a few weeks ago? Where does the time go?