He didn’t want to wait. James Van Der Beek grinned and bore it while navigating his way through an awkward interview on British talk show This Morning on Thursday, March 30. Watch the cringeworthy moment in the video above!
The former teen heartthrob, now 40, looked visibly uncomfortable as the show’s cohosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby gave him a rousing introduction by way of his decades-old character Dawson of Dawson’s Creek fame.
Schofield pointed out that the hit TV series’ three other main actors — Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson — have all gone on to have storied careers, but seemed to imply that Van Der Beek has not when he said, “But what happened to the main man himself? Mr. James Van Der Beek. Well, he’s here now, and that’s what he looks like.”
The camera then cut to a split screen of the actor as a teen on the show and a live shot of him sitting in the studio. “I have been on television the last 20 years, just to let you know,” Van Der Beek pseudo-joked with a forced smile on his face.
“We know that, but it worked better as a link,” Schofield responded. From there, both Schofield and Willoughby continued to question Van Der Beek about his time on Dawson’s Creek, a line of questioning that appeared to annoy the Carters Get Rich star. (The new Sky One show is a six-part series that revolves around a family that goes from rags to riches; Van Der Beek plays a slimy billionaire trying to make a quick buck off them.)
“Would you have imagined now, that we’d still be discussing it all these years later?” Schofield pressed, to which Van Der Beek responded, “No. No. It’s … no. I would not imagine that I would be sitting here in front of a picture from 20 years ago.” Van Der Beek also admitted that he’s never watched the entire series’ six seasons.
Watch the video above to see how the rest of the interview went down!
