James Van Der Beek made a surprise virtual appearance at a Dawson’s Creek charity reunion in New York City on Monday night after he was unable to attend the event in person due to illness.
According to People magazine, the cast of Dawson’s Creek — including Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson — took part in a live reading of the show’s pilot episode at the Richard Rodgers Theatre to benefit the F*** Cancer organization.
Van Der Beek was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2023.
In a prerecorded video projected onstage, the 48-year-old actor said he had been “looking forward to this night for months and months ever since my angel Michelle Williams said she was putting it together.”
“I can’t believe I’m not there,” Van Der Beek said, per People. “I can’t believe I don’t get to see my castmates, my beautiful cast, in person.”
In an Instagram post on Sunday, Van Der Beek announced that he would not be in attendance because he had developed “two stomach viruses,” and that Lin-Manuel Miranda would take his place.
After thanking the cast and crew in his video, Van Der Beek expressed gratitude to fans of the show, which ran for six seasons on the WB from 1998 to 2003.
“You are the best fans in the world,” he said. “Thank you for coming. It’s just absolutely humbling just how much you did for this night, and I just want to say thank you. Thank you to every single person here.”
Van Der Beek then introduced Miranda as his “understudy.” He joked that his kids would consider the “Hamilton” star “an upgrade.”
The cast of “Dawson’s Creek”: Michelle Williams, Joshua Jackson, James Van Der Beek and Katie Holmes. (Fergus Greer/Columbia TriStar Television/Courtesy Everett Collection)
While Van Der Beek was unable to attend in person, his wife, Kimberly, and their children joined Miranda and the Dawson’s cast onstage to sing Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want To Wait,” the show’s theme song.
Steven Spielberg, who was established as a hero to Van Der Beek’s Dawson throughout the series, also made a surprise virtual appearance at the event.
“Dawson, you made it,” Spielberg said in a video message, according to Variety. “Maybe someday, I will get to have a Dawson’s closet.”
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