<\/p>\n
Joshua Jackson says he knows he was \u201creally just a footnote\u201d in James Van Der Beek\u2019s life, despite the \u201camazing\u201d time they spent together as stars of the series \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek.\u201d<\/p>\n
The star of \u201cThe Affair\u201d is reflecting publicly for the first time about his former castmate, who died Feb. 11 at age 48<\/a> after a battle with colorectal cancer. <\/p>\n The time they shared on set was \u201cformational\u201d for them, Jackson said on \u201cToday<\/a>.\u201d When the \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d pilot aired in January 1998, he was 19 and Van Der Beek was almost 21, playing characters who were 15.<\/p>\n \u201cI know both of us look back on that time with great fondness, but I will also say that I know that I\u2019m really just a footnote in what he actually accomplished in his life.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson spoke with great respect for his friend, who he said \u201cbecame what we used to just call a good man, a man of the kind of belief, the kind of faith that allowed him to face the impossible with grace, an unbelievable partner and husband, just a real man who showed up for his family and a beautiful, kind, curious, interested, dedicated father.\u201d<\/p>\n On the one hand, the 47-year-old said, \u201cthat\u2019s beautiful.\u201d On the other, \u201cThe tragedy of that loss for his family is enormous.\u201d <\/p>\n Since Jackson and Van Der Beek played Pacey Witter and Dawson Leery three decades ago, both men had kids of their own \u2014 a 5-year-old daughter for Jackson, born during the pandemic with ex-wife Jodie Turner-Smith<\/a>, and six kids for Van Der Beek with second wife Kimberly Brook. The latter couple\u2019s children \u2014 two boys and four girls, ranging in age from 4 to 15 \u2014 were what Van Der Beek said changed everything for him. <\/p>\n \u201cYour life becomes shared, and your joys become shared joys in a really beautiful way that expands your level of circuitry out to other people instead of just keeping it all for your own gratification,\u201d the actor told \u201cGood Morning America<\/a>\u201d in May 2023. \u201cAnd the lessons, they keep on coming. It\u2019s the craziest, craziest thing I\u2019ve ever done, and it\u2019s the thing that\u2019s made me happiest.\u201d<\/p>\n Knowing his colleague\u2019s love for his family, Jackson said on \u201cToday\u201d that \u201cfor me as a father now, I think the enormity of that tragedy hits me in a very different way than just as a colleague, so I think the processing [of Van Der Beek\u2019s death] is ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cLittle Fires Everywhere\u201d actor was on the morning show Tuesday to bring attention to colorectal cancer screenings.<\/p>\n Van Der Beek\u2019s diagnosis, which went public<\/a> in November 2024, was among the factors prompting Jackson to get involved with drugmaker AstraZeneca\u2019s \u201cGet Body Checked Against Cancer<\/a>\u201d campaign, which takes a lighter approach to a serious subject \u2014 cancer screening \u2014 through a partnership with Jackson, the National Hockey League and the Philadelphia Flyers\u2019 furry orange mascot, Gritty. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is … true, the earlier you find something,\u201d said \u201cThe Mighty Ducks\u201d actor, \u201cthe better your possible outcomes are.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joshua Jackson says he knows he was \u201creally just a footnote\u201d in James Van Der Beek\u2019s life, despite the \u201camazing\u201d time they spent together as stars of the series \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek.\u201d The star of \u201cThe Affair\u201d is reflecting publicly for the first time about his former castmate, who died Feb. 11 at age 48 after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2321684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2321683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Joshua-Jackson-James-Van-Der-Beek-was-a-real-man.com2F8d2Fb72F4e063bf1466c8dba6c910971.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2321683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2321685,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321683\/revisions\/2321685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2321684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2321683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2321683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2321683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}