by Paul Fischer
by
Paul Fischer
James van der Beek doesn't
seem to be in the mood for being interviewed. 
Perhaps
having been in the spotlight for over 5 years in TV's Dawson's Creek
he has a clear disdain for the spotlight. Wearing an unironed denim
shirt that hangs loosely over his faded jeans, van der Beek, currently
starring in the drugs 'n' sex college satire Rules of Attraction,
based on Bret Easton Ellis' dark novel, recalls the craziness
that was once a part of his life at the peak of his television success.
"It's absolutely bizarre and completely strange to wrap your mind
around." He recalls having dealt with all of the unwanted attention
by "just surrounding yourself with the right people and create your
own life independently of what goes on because of that." That includes
his upcoming marriage to actress Heather McComb whom
he had been dating since 1996. "I don't talk about that much and
it's pretty private but it's also what keeps my life real."
Now 26, van der Beek has changed a lot since, as a fresh-faced 20-year
old, he became an instant star as Dawson's Creek became a solid
hit with a generation of teenagers searching for a television show that
would speak to them. "When I first got really famous, I wasn't really
in Hollywood, but in Wilmington, North Carolina," which was a blessing,
he adds. "In retrospect I can say that I was lucky, that at the height
of all this insanity, I was still going to work with a bunch of people,
most of whom that just kind of happened into the industry and who were
unimpressed with anything that had to do with fame."
As a critic of his Dawson experiences, Van Der Beek admits that he learned
a lot from working on the show. "The thing that comes immediately
to mind is the technical process of filmmaking. I remember going from
stage, which came naturally to me, and being on a film set and having
all this stuff thrown at you. I've been making TV for 9 months of the
year, 6 years in a row and there's no substitute for that -- to just be
aware of finding the lines and the light and getting those kinds of technical
skills down without them becoming a distraction."
Given the clean-cut image van der Beek personified as Dawson, the actor
admits that "there was also a lot of resistance to me taking the
role". Rulescasts a satirical eye on a surreal sex triangle
between three students at a New England college: drug-stealing Sean (van
der Beek), the younger brother of Ellis' famous American
Psycho character Patrick Bateman his bisexual friend Paul (Ian
Somerhalder); and Paul's ex, Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon).
Far from playing the nice guy audiences know from Van der Beek's television
work, here he goes all out to play a character that can be defined as
both unsympathetic and even repulsive. The actor concedes that while it
might be difficult to get into the skin of such a character, his job is,
he explains, "to find some reason to love him a little bit. Not that
you can excuse a lot of what he does in the movie, but certainly you've
got to go beyond the whole notion of him being some kind of psycho or
bad guy; you can't play him like that, but rather come up with a reason
for why he does what he does." And being the young brother of the
American Psycho, "imagine him having
Van der Beek spent 2 years at university studying English and Sociology, before landing the gig in Dawson's Creek, and admits he found it easy to relate to the drug and sex-hazed world of Rules of Attraction, "to the point when I read the script I thought it was very honest and truthful. This is the kind of movie I wish somebody had made when I went to college," admitting that the film can be seen as almost a cautionary tale. "I have a sister that is in college right now and so this is definitely the kind of thing I would want her to see." As Van der Beek was required to shoot both Rules of Attraction and Dawson's Creek simultaneously, going from one character to another proved an interesting challenge for the actor. "It forced me to build Sean as the exact opposite of Dawson in just about every way," explains the actor. "With Dawson, I've been doing it for so long that it's almost like working on Rules was like swimming upstream and then when I got back to Dawson I kinda drifted," Van Der Beek confesses.
This is why he is happy to bid the show farewell after six years. "I've been told that this will probably be the last year even though we haven't been told officially." Van Der Beek says that he has no idea what the series finale will have in store for him, nor does he apparently care. "Honestly, in terms of the television show, my attitude is give 'em what they want. I mean I've gotten everything that I could possibly want out of it, so I just want to give the fans a great send off that they'll enjoy and appreciate, which is the most important thing to me." Although it is television that established Van Der Beek as a star, the actor has been acting since he was a teenager. Asked if, with the TV show and some film work now behind him, he has gotten everything out of acting at age 26 that he intended to when he began, Van Der Beek ponders the question thoughtfully. "To me, it's a never-ending learning process. I've had different perceptions of what it would be based on different times in my life, but at least Rules of Attraction I know was everything that I wished it would be, working on it and seeing the finished product. It was incredibly rewarding because it was something that I'd never done before." And Van Der Beek's timing was perfect, proving that he could go beyond Dawson in its last year. "I obviously want to keep working, broaden my horizons and play a variety of characters, because Dawson is obviously not the only thing I can do."
Clearly for Van Der Beek, there is life after Dawson's Creek, and is currently wading through offers and preparing for his wedding. Dividing his time between North California and Los Angeles, the actor is undecided as to where he would like to raise his children. "I guess it depends on where I'm at in my career. If I'm at a point where I can afford to live outside of Los Angeles, where the kids can take advantage of four distinct seasons, then I'll do it. But at the same time you don't want to have to be pulling them out of school and be absent all the time. Maybe I'd better wait till we're ready to have kids before we worry too much about it," he laughingly concludes.