‘I never saw it coming; it blew my mind. It was awesome and it was horrible and it was terrifying.’
Dawson. Joey. Pacey. Jen. Michelle Williams. Katie Holmes. Josh Jackson. James Van Der Beek.
Each of those actors and character names are synonymous with the former WB Network’s Dawson’s Creek, which on Jan. 20, marks the 20th anniversary of its series premiere. When the series launched in 1998, creator Kevin Williamson had already sold hot spec script Scream and was taking meetings around town before the now horror classic began production. In what would be his first TV meeting, Williamson — on the spot when asked if he had ideas for the small screen — threw out a random idea based on his childhood growing up near a creek as an aspiring filmmaker who worshiped Steven Spielberg. That would become The WB Network’s teen drama that ran for six seasons and more than 120 episodes that launched the careers of stars Van Der Beek (Dawson, the aspiring filmmaker with eyes for the girl across the creek), Holmes (Joey, the deeply driven girl torn between two friends), Williams (Jen, the city girl who shook up the creek) and Jackson (Pacey, the lovable and smart slacker).
To mark the 20th anniversary the Dawson’s Creek series premiere, Williamson speaks exclusively with The Hollywood Reporter about the origins of the show (Fox famously passed and he got a dog and named it Dawson), near-miss castings (Selma Blair as Joey, Jackson as Dawson), Jack’s (Kerr Smith) coming out and the show’s equally star-studded writer’s room that launched the careers of showrunners including Greg Berlanti and Julie Plec.
Looking back, what do you recall about the original conversations for the show?
I had sold Scream and they hadn’t made it yet. It was a spec script, and everyone was reading it. It got me a lot of meet and greets. I was still starting out and at a smaller agency at the time and they had said there was this TV producer named Paul Stupin who wanted to meet with me. I had only been meeting feature film producers. At this stage, I was an assistant who had just sold a big script and I didn’t know how to navigate my way through Hollywood. He asked if I had ideas for TV and, in the moment, I started making up a show. I had no idea! I started talking about growing up in North Carolina on a creek with my video camera, filming movies in the backyard and wishing to be Steven Spielberg. I just kept talking: it was about me and my friends. Paul said, «I like that. When you work that out, come back and pitch that to me.» I went home and stayed up all night long and wrote this 20-page outline.
What happened when you went back to pitch?
Paul asked me to come back the next day and pitch to the studio, Columbia TriStar. I was like, holy shit! I thought I’d gotten myself into a pickle and had better come up with something great. I came up with Dawson’s Creek and pitched it. I remember their only note was to move it out of North Carolina and put it in Boston. I set it outside of Boston, in Capeside. Then I went to Fox and pitched it — and they bought it. I was excited and wrote the script and then Fox passed on it. It was when Party of Five was struggling and Fox wondered if they needed another teen drama. They were putting their support into that and they didn’t know if Dawson’s was going to be a headache. It went away and my life was over. I went and got a dog and named him Dawson. I thought that would be my only memory of this script. The script sat there for the longest time and out of the blue I got a call from TriStar, who told me about The WB Network. They said, «I don’t know if you’ve watched Buffy but they just started and were looking for scripts. We sent them Dawson’s Creek and they really want to meet you.» I went for a meeting with [then-chief programmer] Garth Ancier and [entertainment president] Susanne Daniels. We just clicked and that was it.
Did they have any early notes?
They all loved it and said all the things I wanted to hear. I wasn’t sure if they were just trying to woo me. I was like, «Guys, no one else wants this script! If you want it, it’s yours!» One of my agents at the time said the script wasn’t a «real script» because people didn’t talk the way the characters did in it: «It sounds like all these kids are psychology majors; it doesn’t ring true.» I admitted that it was a little stylized in the way they talk but I thought an ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words. It was all about the behavior, what they’re trying to say. I never thought anything was going to come of it.
Twenty years after its premiere, when you think about the show, what do you think its legacy is?
There are so many ways to approach that answer. I was trying to get a career off the ground because I was so broke and remember having a professor tell me that writing has to be personal. I looked around and said, «What is the show I want to watch? What’s not being made?» That’s why I wrote Scream, because nobody was making a horror movie that I wanted to see. And when Paul approached me about TV, the shows that meant something to me was Beverly Hills, 90210, James at 15 and Little House on the Prairie. I remember how Charles (Michael Landon) and [his daughter] Half Pint (Laura, played by Melissa Gilbert) would have all their emotional moments at the end of an episode and it would always be some revelation of the human condition even in its most simple form. I remember watching and studying the pilot for My So-Called Life because it was so beautiful. I tried to write something that was personal to me. I did grow up on a creek and all those characters [in Dawson’s Creek] I knew. A lot of them were pieces of me that I turned into real people. I wanted to make the teen drama of the 1990s; to create my version of 90210, James at 15 and Little House of the Prairie. I wanted it to speak to the teenage audience of the day.
If you could change one thing from the pilot today, what would you do differently?
It wouldn’t be one thing because I’m a different storyteller now. I would rewrite the whole thing and probably destroy it. I don’t think I would change anything.
So, no regrets about Pacey sleeping with his teacher, Mrs. Jacobs?
No! ( Laughs.) The only flack we ever got was for that storyline. Jamie Kellner, who was the president of The WB at that time, didn’t say we couldn’t do it but he was the father figure who would come in and ask, «How long is this storyline going to last?» ( Laughs.) We told him six episodes and he responded: «OK, that’d be a good thing.» ( Laughs.) There was a lot of criticism about that storyline and he was having to take all the flack for it. But no, I wouldn’t change it because it served its purpose and it was based in a storyline from my own childhood. If I was writing the show today I probably would not have it in the story.
Dawson’s launched the careers of James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams and Josh Jackson. What do you recall about those early casting sessions?
I remember when Michelle Williams walked in and auditioned for Jen. I had always envisioned her as the girl from the wrong side of the creek who at 15 comes to the creek with a checkered past and disrupts its flow. When she came in — she auditioned with when Jen goes in and sees her grandfather laying in the bed — she got really quiet and just sat there for a really long time as if this grandfather was sitting in front of her. She played it as if she were really broken. I saw Jen as this fallen angel, a broken bird and Michelle tapped into that. She transformed herself into this broken child who just needed to be fixed. I knew I’d found Jen Lindley.
What about casting for Joey? Was it always Katie?
Joe was written to be a tomboy and everyone was coming in being very much a tomboy. We were very close to going with Selma Blair, who was amazing. She read it very tough, with a lot of heart. The casting director came in with this tape from Ohio and wanted to show it to me. It was Katie Holmes in the basement of her home, reading with her mom as Dawson. She was sitting in a chair with her hair all around her and all you saw were these two big eyes. I just went holy shit, who is this?! What are those eyes?! Is this how they grow them in Toledo?! Can we get her on a plane today? I remember that she couldn’t come and I got her on the phone and said, «You don’t know me but can you please come to L.A. because I think you’re Joey Potter and I really want to meet you.» She told me she was in the middle of doing her high school play, Damn Yankees, and said she had a big part in it and they wouldn’t be able to do it if she came to L.A. She said the show closed in two weeks. She wouldn’t let her classmates down. I didn’t know if she was even going to get the part, but we waited. When she walked in, she was all that and more.
Was it equally hard to cast Dawson?
There were 20 people in this room [during casting] and they all had their opinion of who Dawson was. There was a whole conversation about Josh Jackson being Dawson. When you go back and look at the script, Dawson was the underdog, the nerd, the video geek. In what high school do you see the video geek being the hot guy? I fell in love with Josh Jackson because he could read any role, Dawson or Pacey. But something wasn’t complete and that’s when the network said they didn’t see Josh as Dawson, and rightfully so. So, I went, «OK, he’s Pacey,» because I knew I wanted him in the show no matter what. We had to go back and find a Dawson. We started exploring New York and James was going to college and had done some work there. A casting director sent a video of him and we put him on a plane to L.A. In the early days, James had this quality where he was very cerebral and internal. He had that nervousness that made it seem like he was pre-thinking and over-thinking and over-compensating constantly like he was insecure. And we said, «There’s Dawson.» This confident guy who is not confident at all. This kid who everyone thinks has all the answers has no answers whatsoever, he’s totally confused about everything. And I said, there’s Dawson.
At what point did you realize that the chemistry between Josh and Katie was so unavoidable that Joey and Pacey could have a future — more than Dawson and Joey?
During season one’s «Science Project.» Joey and Pacey were paired to do the science project and they had to go and collect samples. They got wet and had to take their clothes off in the truck and there was that very uncomfortable moment where you could just see how she peeked at him and he peeked at her. They were so nervous with each other. They had instant chemistry. [ Laughs.] We all saw that and we were like, «OK, uh, [do we pair them up in] season three? Season two?!» The show was about the soul mate question of Dawson and Joey. We saw that chemistry between Katie and Josh and decided it would be the thing that breaks up Dawson and Joey and that it would come between Dawson and Pacey’s friendship. We wanted to be very careful not to sacrifice our characters. If the audience had turned against Joey or Pacey, I would have died. We had to be careful about when we did it.
What surprised you about how big that love triangle became?
I never saw it coming; it blew my mind. It was awesome and it was horrible and it was terrifying. We played around with little moments of Joey and Pacey’s chemistry in season two because we had this whole big Andie (Meredith Monroe) storyline with Pacey that was sort of an Officer and a Gentleman storyline where the show really became Pacey’s Pond a bit. He started to care about himself and made an effort to be a better person for the love of a good woman and ultimately for himself. We wanted that storyline first. And then I stepped away after the second season and [exec producer/writer] Greg Berlanti and his team, I thought, chose a beautiful moment at which to launch Pacey and Joey [in season three]. It was right when the show needed it and that was the juice that launched us into the second wave of the show.
Did the network have any trepidation about breaking up the show’s then-central couple of Dawson and Joey?
I remember Susanne and [former WB Network chief] Jordan Levin were supportive. They just said to not sacrifice the character and make sure viewers understand their decisions and their attraction. Everyone talked about their feelings a lot, almost excessively, and we knew that when this triangle erupted that there would be a lot of conversation and that we be able to be responsible to our characters and not lose viewers. I think it ultimately worked because at the root of this whole show they all loved each other.
What about when you introduced Jack (Kerr Smith) — was it always the plan to tell a coming out storyline? Did the execs have any feedback to what would become broadcast TV’s first same-sex kiss?
Even before we brought Jack onto the show, it was always designed to have him come out of the closet and be gay. I didn’t share it with everyone because I was scared as a gay writer in Hollywood that storyline would be rejected. I told Paul and we strategized on how to get the network on board and what happens if they said no to it. I pitched it to Susanne Daniels as this guy who comes between Joey and Dawson. We wanted to bring in all these tentacles to expand the show and complicate the relationships.
