One proud costar! It may be more than 15 years since James Van Der Beek starred onscreen alongside Michelle Williams on Dawson’s Creek, but the actor has enjoyed watching her career flourish.
“I think one of the fun things about seeing Michelle — and the success she’s had now —is she kind of slid under the radar when we were doing the show,” the Varsity Blues star, 41, told Us of Williams, 38, at the TrevorLIVE LA Gala earlier this month.
“And I think people really underestimated her outside of the cast,” Van Der Beek continued. “So, yeah, it’s been fun to kind of watch her get her revenge a little bit.”
The What Would Diplo Do? actor added of Williams: “She’s awesome, yeah. She’s always done her own thing. She’s a voracious reader, and I think at a certain point just kind of said, ‘You know what? I’m going to stop trying to impress everybody else and just follow my own gut.’ And that has worked out well.”
Van Der Beek starred as Dawson Leery and Williams portrayed Jen Lindley in the teenage drama series that ran for six season from 1998 to 2003 on The WB. Other main characters on the popular show included Katie Holmes as Joey Potter and Joshua Jackson as Pacey Witter. (Williams was ultimately killed off on the series finale.)
Earlier this year, the aforementioned foursome covered the April issue of Entertainment Weekly in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the premiere episode.
“I remember loving the script. I remember thinking everyone was amazing,” Van Der Beek told reflected to the publication. “All the actors were perfectly cast.”
Williams, for her part, posed alongside Busy Philipps, who joined the cast as Audrey Liddell in 2001.
“I loved that we were able to get in there in those formative years for people. That’s why people, I think, are so connected to it,” the Venom actress gushed at the time. “When something affects you while you were growing up, it kind of stays in there forever. When you’re so permeable and open and trying to figure out who you are and what’s going on, whatever reaches you in those moments really becomes part of you.”
With reporting by Taylor Ferber
