Kerr Smith is setting the record straight on whether there was drama on the set of Dawson’s Creek.
“As I’m promoting my book this week, I’m starting to see some headlines that are clearly designed for clicks,” Smith, 54, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, November 11. “But before they stir up too much drama, I want everyone to know that I have nothing but love and respect for all my fellow Dawson’s Creek cast mates. It was a unique experience we all shared, and I continue to cherish each and every one of them — whether they participated in this project or not! There is no beef. I count them all as dear friends.”
In Smith’s new book, I Don’t Wanna Wait: My Life on Dawson’s Creek, Smith claimed that the “the worst-kept secret” on the show was the alleged “rather meta love-triangle” between Katie Holmes, James Van Der Beek and Joshua Jackson. (Us reached out to Holmes and Jackson’s reps for comment.)
“Katie and the guys were all in and around their twenties, and undeniably attractive — of course they dated. Was that scandalous? Hardly. Unpredictable? Not even close,” Smith wrote. “But … while nobody was talking openly about the romantic entanglements that had quietly complicated season one, those simmering tensions had a way of making the on-set air feel slightly charged, even on the most ordinary of days, into season two and beyond.”
Smith recalled joining the cast in season 2 as Jack McPhee and feeling like the tension between the male actors was “low, grade, unspoken, known to everyone.” Between takes, Smith couldn’t “recall a single conversation between them” despite everything being cordial.
“They didn’t hand out. They didn’t interact off set,” he wrote. “It wasn’t dramatic, and it didn’t get in the way of anything that mattered. It was simply… a thing that existed. We were all aware of it, nobody talked about it, it was just an undercurrent that ran beneath everything for the better part of the run — quiet, unnecessary, and frankly, a little immature.”
Van Der Beek’s onscreen mother, Mary-Margaret Humes, claimed that “everyone was aware” of the dynamic between the cast. From her perspective, it “was a bit uncomfortable to be around… and also sad to watch.”
When Jackson invited “the entire cast and crew” to the screening of 2000’s The Skylls, Humes received a call from Van Der Beek saying he would not be participating.
“James called Mary-Margaret the morning of the screening to inform her, in no uncertain terms, that he would not be attending. Under any circumstances,” Smith wrote. “Her response was equally unambiguous. ‘I am picking you up at one o’clock. Be ready when I arrive. Period.’ She picked him up. On the drive over, Mary-Margaret made her case: They were still early into the run of the show; they had what they hoped — and frankly, expected — would be a long road ahead. This was a passing phase, and sometimes you just have to be the bigger man and show up.”
After Van Der Beek arrived at the event, Jackson thanked his costar and hugged Humes — and “something shifted” between the two guys as they began to “bury the hatchet.”
“It’s the kind of small story that speaks volumes about what we actually were to each other down there,” Smith wrote. “Not just castmates or colleagues. Something closer and more complicated and more durable than either of those words suggests. A community. One that could get bruised and bent and strained under the weight of young people living too close together for too long — and one that could also, with a little prodding from the right person at the right moment, find its way back to itself.”
Dawson’s Creek followed a close-knit group of friends — Dawson (Van Der Beek), Joey (Holmes), Pacey (Jackson), Jen (Michelle Williams), Jack (Smith) and more — navigating their high-school years and beyond. The show famously featured a love triangle between Dawson, Joey and Pacey — with (spoiler alert!) Joey and Pacey ending up together in the series finale.
The coming-of-age story aired for six seasons from 1998 to 2003. Before their characters had an onscreen relationship of their own, Holmes and Jackson dated in real life for around a year. The pair have since remained friends and are set to start in the upcoming Happy Hours trilogy.
More than two decades after Dawson’s Creek ended, Van Der Beek died after a battle with stage 3 colorectal cancer. He was 48.
I Don’t Wanna Wait: My Life on Dawson’s Creek is out now.
