James Van Der Beek talked with Vulture about his time on Dawson’s Creek and it is one of the most important interviews of our time.
When asked if he thinks today’s teen idols, like Justin Bieber, have it harder than he had it, he was forced to Get Real:
Absolutely, 100 percent. Those kids — No. 1, they’re so young. No. 2, they’re under such an intense microscope. And there’s a lot more money to be made off of them than there was when I was famous. I mean, I don’t know. I just don’t judge. It’s very easy. People love to judge. People love to be self-righteous. They get a lot of energy from that. Listen: Fame is not hard. Right? Being a soldier is hard, digging ditches is hard, coal mining is hard. But it’s tricky. It’s not something you can ever get any sympathy for, nor should you, and it’s not something you can really explain to someone who hasn’t gone through it. But it’s tricky because … you’re the same. You feel generally like the same person, but the behavior of everyone around you starts to change. I remember we did season one of Dawson’s Creek in complete obscurity. Then when we were shooting season two [which was shot after everyone was famous], my trailer door had a latch that stuck, so the only way to get it closed was to slam it. And I said something to one of the producers, but it kept on breaking, whatever. But within a week, I had all the producers in my trailer for a very serious sit-down, because they had heard that I was slamming my trailer door. That never would have happened in season one.
There’s a lot to information ingest there about our relationship with fame from a dude who knows. He goes on to say that when you’re so famous so young, you have to take responsibility for “every aspect of your behavior, which is just difficult to do when you’re a kid.” I mean, can you imagine — having that kind of money, power, and accessibility as a tween or teenager. I would’ve been a fucking monster — forcing my parents to do dramatic reenactment of Double Dare challenges while I ate all the Gushers within a five mile radius. When you pair that sort of insanity with guardians who can’t handle the situation, you have the problem with child stars, in a nutshell.
Finally: Is Dawson’s Creek on Netflix? Because I don’t wannnnna wait my my shift to be over (before I watch Pacey and Dawson fight over Joey).
[Vulture]
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