The Poster Memorabilia blog

Reuniting with My Parasocial High School Friends

A midnight screening, a decade of patience, and the Stratford sisters together again.

By an anonymous Hollywood insider

90s kids, we really had it good, didn't we? We had the best teen movies growing up, from the usual high school romances to the most raucous college comedies. A whole section of the film industry made films just for us, and I lament that kids these days don't have that.

Perhaps that's why they're so nostalgic for a time many of them weren't even born in, let alone experienced. Our teen movies were undoubtedly the coolest, and for me, it doesn't get any better than 10 Things I Hate About You. Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in what is actually a Shakespeare story adapted into a 90s high school romance? Yes, please!

“Our teen movies were undoubtedly the coolest.”

As a bookworm and literary nerd who was around the same age, the film couldn't have come at a better time in my life. I watched it so many times in theaters that I actually made friends with the young staff of my local AMC.

Admittedly, I also formed a parasocial relationship with the cast, or more specifically, their characters. Kat, Patrick, Cameron, and Bianca were like my friends, and every time I watched it, it felt like a reunion with friends who come from a different school. Yes, I became that weird about it, but luckily, I grew out of it.

What I didn't grow out of, however, was my love for the cast. I became a huge fan of all of them and watched practically every movie they made afterward. I even sought to see them in person when I moved to LA, and my biggest regret was never meeting the late, great Heath Ledger before he passed in 2008.

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At least I still got to see the rest of them. I was lucky to have gone to the movie's 15th anniversary midnight screening at the Nuart in 2014. They didn't all appear, but a few of my faves did, like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Andrew Keegan, David Krumholtz, and Susan May Pratt. Things got so busy for them that I only got to meet JGL and Krumholtz, who happily signed my poster.

A year later, I went to the People's Choice Awards to see the beautiful Gabrielle Union. Of all the cast members I've seen in person, she remained the most youthful. The woman could still play Chastity Church all these years later, and it wouldn't have made much difference.

It then took me a decade to meet both Julia Stiles and Larisa Oleynik, but I didn't mind. I was just happy enough to have seen them in person and gotten their autographs on the same poster. It was also special to meet them at the premiere of Stiles' directorial debut, Wish You Were Here.

I actually teared up a bit seeing the Stratford sisters again 26 years later, and they still looked so beautiful. In fact, they looked so good that I wouldn't mind seeing all of them return for a long-awaited sequel, too. If every other 90s and early 2000s film is gonna get one, why not this one too?

Some things you watch. This one you keep.

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