Some connections just pick up right where they left off, just ask Joshua Jackson and Katie Holmes.
The actor, 47, gushed over their upcoming film, Happy Hours, decades after sharing the screen with Holmes, 47, as Pacey Witter and Joey Potter on the beloved teen drama Dawson’s Creek, which spanned for six seasons from January 1998 to May 2003.
“She’s a lifelong friend now,” Jackson said during an interview on Today that aired on Tuesday, March 10. “And for us to get to go back and be able to do this again and honestly for her to create that space for us, was kind of magical.”
Holmes directs and stars in the new film alongside Jackson, and this time they play a couple deciding if their fizzled love deserves another chance. He shared his hopes for a three-movie saga to capture the complicated pull of a past romance.
“Katie wrote this beautiful story for the two of us that is the three phases of a love story,” Jackson said. “So we shot the fun part, which is the falling in love, and she’s cutting it together now. And that will come out and hopefully it will give us the opportunity to go back and make the other two.”
Holmes and Jackson’s onscreen spark appeared to be as strong as ever while shooting on the streets of New York City in June 2025. They were seen smiling and exchanging words on an outdoor bench during one scene.
“We spent so much intense time at a particular moment in our lives and then we have maintained our friendship for all of these years, but we’ve never had a chance to be on camera together, and it was magic,” Jackson fondly shared about their reunion.
“It was so nice to go back into that place. And, you know, you never know until you’re actually doing the thing, but to still have chemistry with somebody after all of those years is nice.”
During his interview with Today, Jackson also broke his silence on the death of his former costar James Van Der Beek. “I think it hits in a variety of different ways, and so for me, as a father now, I think the enormity of that tragedy for his family hits me in a very different way than just as a colleague, so I think processing is ongoing,” he said.
Van Der Beek died on February 11 at age 48 after a battle with stage III colorectal cancer. (He is survived by his wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, and their six children: Olivia, 15, Joshua, 13, Annabel, 12, Emilia, 9, Gwendolyn, 7, and Jeremiah, 4.)
Jackson continued, “He became 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.”
