It’s a cry-off! Joshua Jackson took to Instagram on Sunday, August 12, to share a photo from the Sunday, August 5, episode of The Affair, in which he is crying. However, he didn’t just post the photo of himself – instead, he put it side-by-side to a very famous crying face: a still of his former Dawson’s Creek costar James Van Der Beek.
“I’m coming for your crown @vanderjames,” Jackson, 40, captioned the photo. Van Der Beek, 41, commented on the photo, writing, “Bring it.”
The famous Dawson crying face originally happened in 2000 during the season 3 finale when Joey (Katie Holmes) leaves Dawson (Van Der Beek) for Pacey (Jackson). Ever since, it has become a famous meme.
“I feel like everybody on this show cried more than I did and I was the one who got caught in the loop,” Van Der Beek told Entertainment Weekly in March during the cast reunion. Jackson responded, “It’s not how many times you cried. It’s how you cried.”
Van Der Beek has since leaned into it, admitting it’s pretty funny. “I love it. It’s my favorite thing about the whole show! It’s hilarious to me that you can work for six years on a show … and it gets boiled down to three seconds. It’s a perfect way-of-the-internet,” he said.
Ever since the reunion, the cast has gotten closer thanks to a group text chain that includes Van Der Beek, Jackson, Holmes and Meredith Monroe (Andie).
“We’ve been having fun and reconnecting,” Monroe, 48, told Us in July. “It’s been a blessing to see everyone again. I think it just comes in and out. All of our lives have gone in crazy different directions. It’s sometimes you grab a moment with somebody and sometimes it’s years. The nice thing is when we see each other, we pick up right where we left off.”
Meanwhile, Busy Phillips (who played Audrey) and Michelle Williams (who played Jen) are not part of the text! “I think Michelle and I didn’t get … We missed that moment when they [did that],” Phillips told Us on August 8. “I don’t know why we’re not on it, but we’re not. Maybe they figure that we’re fine!”
Dawson’s Creek is currently streaming on Hulu.
