More than 25 years later, Kerr Smith still remembers the rollercoaster of emotions that came with his pioneering LGBTQ role on Dawson’s Creek.
The actor, who played Jack McPhee on the WB teen soap from 1998 to 2003, admitted the news of his character’s sexuality was initially “a real bummer for me, honestly,” and even made him “very, very scared” for his safety.
“Nobody knew. I didn’t know,” he revealed on the Pod Meets World podcast. “The WB didn’t know, [Dawson’s Creek studio] Sony didn’t know, none of the producers knew. It was an idea in [creator] Kevin Williamson‘s head, that’s it.”
Noting that Williamson wrote Katie Holmes‘ Joey Potter to be inspired by himself, Smith explained that “nobody was representing his sexuality” on the show when the actor joined the cast at the beginning of Season 2. “Because he was in the closet publicly and he wanted to come out publicly beyond his family and friends,” he added.
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Smith took a few days to consult his team, as the role was becoming “very, very different” than what he signed up for. “I need to make the right decision here because at that time in 1998, this is a tough one,” he said.
Following advice from co-star John Wesley Shipp, Smith was on board with the role’s new storyline. “He said, ‘Kerr, do it because you will get the best of Kevin Williamson’s writing.’ And he’s right,” said Smith.
After Jack came out as gay during the two-part Season 2 finale in 1999, Dawson’s Creek featured primetime TV’s first kiss between two men during the May 24, 2000 episode ‘True Love’. The backlash was intense for Smith.
“We had protests outside the stage yelling and screaming. There was a brick wall that separated me eating my lunch from a crowd of people that were angry as hell. If I had walked out there, they’d probably beat the crap out of me,” he said, adding: “Because it was in the South, too, which didn’t help.”
Dawson’s Creek was filmed in North Carolina.
Despite being “very, very scared” for his safety, Smith seems to have no regrets in playing Jack. “Now looking back in hindsight, I just wanna say this: I’m super, super proud of what we pulled off because as you know, the face of television has changed and I think people’s acceptance of other people, sexuality, or whatever it might be is much more broad and much more open these days,” he added.
In September, Smith reunited with his Dawson’s Creek costars for a live reading of the pilot episode, benefitting F Cancer after star James Van Der Beek announced his Stage 3 colorectal cancer diagnosis.