Moment of truth: We totally tried to play it cool when we recently sat down for a 1:1 with Dawson Leery James Van Der Beek. We didn't tell him about our childhood obsession with the show, or this story, and we certainly didn't tell him how, when we first watched Friday Night Lights (the show, not the movie), we didn't even notice our budding obsession with Tim Riggins, because all we could think was: Didn't James Van Der Beek already make this movie? Wasn't it called Varsity Blues?
Instead, we chatted with him about his heartwarming new movie (Backwards, in limited release now, as well as on VOD and iTunes, if you can't find it in your area), the spiritual experience of being an athlete (and particularly rowing), and so much more.
We think we did a pretty good job of being adults about the whole thing, and we're happy about it. Because it turns out, picking James' brain on fatherhood, the film industry, his biggest regrets, and — surprisingly — mean girls was pretty fascinating. Read on if you want to judge for yourself.
How did you come to be involved with Backwards?
"I had heard first about Sarah [Megan Thomas], and that she’d come from the women’s competitive realm [of rowing]. She had written a script and had gotten the money to shoot it and was producing it and starring in it. And I thought, ‘That sounds like someone I need to meet.’ And I read the script, and it was a really sweet movie, ya know? I had just had a daughter, and so the idea of doing a movie that focused on women’s sports and life in general — I just thought it was a really sweet story."
It really is a sweet, heartwarming story, which is a wild swing from your last few projects. Your body of work — from a Bret Easton Ellis adaptation to Dawson's Creek to Criminal Intent — spans such a range of characters. Is that intentional?
"It’s like someone with a severe case of multiple personality disorder."
But is there a master plan here?
"I know what I respond to viscerally as soon as I read it. I’m a very curious person. And I just like to shake things up and try different things every time. I love the idea of trying something new or collaborating with somebody on something I haven’t done before or trying a tone I haven’t tried before. Getting to tell different stories and experiencing life through in people’s shoes — that’s exciting to me. I mean I would get bored if I did the same thing every time, I think. Backwards came after a diet of straight serial killers films, so the idea of playing somebody who wasn’t scheming or killing or kidnapping or whatever else I’ve done was kind of a nice change of pace."
As far as trying new things goes, you've been so open to making fun of yourself and even playing a character that’s sort of a warped version of yourself on TV. Did you ever hesitate, thinking it would backfire?
"I think before all that came along, I made a very distinct decision to just say yes to things that sounded like fun that I hadn’t done before. I’d said no enough times in my career and in my life that I just got to a place where I thought, ‘Why not?’ Let’s just have some fun and not take things too seriously and let everybody else see the kind of humor that only my friends had gotten to see up to that point."
Have you had any regrets over the years? Missed opportunities?
"Absolutely. Like I said, I went through a period where, I don’t know if it was subconscious, but maybe because I was burnt out or maybe out of fear of what people would think of me, I didn’t want to work, and so I would kind of pass on a lot of things that would have been a good idea to have done at the time. But, thankfully, because of where I am right now, they’re not regrets, they’re great mistakes that I learned from them. Nobody’s perfect, everyone makes mistakes, everyone makes bad decisions. And if you can learn something from them and adjust and attack the future more effectively, then that mistake becomes the greatest gift you could have gotten."
What's the one piece of advice you'd give yourself, if you could go back?
"I would say you can always spend less energy thinking about how to impress people."
Photo: Courtesy of Dada Films