Julia Stiles Says “10 Things I Hate About You ”Character 'Meant a Lot' as a Teen Star: 'I Was Vulnerable' (Exclusive)

Julia Stiles is reflecting on her iconic role in 10 Things I Hate About You.

On Wednesday, Jan. 15, the actress, 43, spoke exclusively to PEOPLE at the New York screening of her directorial debut movie, Wish You Were Here, revealing that the 1999 classic is the movie she's most "recognized" for.

"Something's in the ether and I love that so much," she tells PEOPLE, noting why the spirited character of Kat Stratford means so much to her.

"I was a 17-year-old actress auditioning and getting a lot of annoying comments like, ‘You're too serious’ or ‘you need to be sexier’ or ‘smile more’ and I was vulnerable to it because I was still trying to figure out who I was," Stiles says.

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"And then I read 10 Things I Hate About You and Kat Stratford was like this feisty outspoken girl who did not care what people thought about her,” Stiles continues.

“So it meant a lot to me to be in that movie and that it resonates with people still is so great.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gabrielle Union and the late Heath Ledger starred in 10 Things I Hate About You alongside Stiles. The movie tells the story of high school student Cameron (Gordon-Levitt) trying to find a date for Kat (Stiles) as he wants to date her younger sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik).

Related: Julia Stiles Shares First Look at Her Directorial Debut Wish You Were Here: The Book 'Broke My Heart' (Exclusive)

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Asked if she's still in touch with her castmates, Stiles says, "A little bit, but from a distance."

"Josh lives in London and, Joseph lives in LA and I know that Larisa Oleynik is gonna be here tonight, which will be wonderful, to see her," she explains.

During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Jan. 13, Stiles also spoke about working with Ledger on the teen rom-com.

"He was such a force," she said. "He walked into a room and just lit it up and had so much energy and passion, and it's really sad that he's gone."

Ledger died at the age of 28 on Jan. 22, 2008. A toxicology report revealed a fatal mix of prescription drugs in his system.

Stiles also tells PEOPLE that despite loving the movies she’s been in, she doesn’t watch them back as she's “too critical" of herself.

“I really appreciate when people respond to movies that I've been in, but I don't watch them because I'm always too critical looking back at like, ‘Oh, I wish I had done that differently,’ but now it's become kind of like a time capsule of different periods of my life,” she says.

Read the original article on People