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Joshua Up The Creek

by: Louis B. Hobson
*The Calgary Sun - March 2000

NEW YORK -- It's hardly a pact with the devil, but someone does own Joshua Jackson's body and soul.

"I'm committed to Dawson's Creek for the next three years. They own me, plain and simple. I doubt I'd renegotiate a contract once this one runs out," says

Jackson, who plays the wise-cracking Pacey on the popular teen soap opera.

"I have nothing to complain about," he adds. "When I auditioned for Dawson's Creek three years ago, I was unemployed and begging for jobs.

"Now I'm being offered leads and cameos in big studio projects. Dawson's Creek has given me a truly enviable profile."

Two of Jackson's latest projects are headed for theatres this spring.

He stars in the drama The Skulls -- opening Friday -- and next month comes the eerie thriller Gossip.

He had much smaller roles in such teen films as Scream 2, Urban Legends and Cruel Intentions.

"Because of Dawson's Creek, I can only take films that are shooting during our hiatus period."

Jackson hails from Vancouver, where his mother is a casting director.

"My mom actually tried to keep me out of the business. She has seen too many dreams crushed by the reality that there are too few parts for far too many actors."

Jackson's first role was in Crooked Hearts, the 1991 screen adaptation of a John Irving novel. It starred Vincent D'Onofrio, Peter Berg, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Juliette Lewis.

"I played Peter Berg as a child in the flashback sequence. I celebrated my 11th birthday on that set. I had 10 days work and knew it's what I wanted to do with my life."

Jackson's other passion is hockey. He claims he learned to skate at the same time he learned to walk. His two passions merged when he was cast in The Mighty Ducks.

"I was pretty precocious as a child. My parents divorced when I was eight. I went to live with my mom and grew fast.

"I was one of those pain-in-the-butt kids who had a problem with authority. I got kicked out of two schools for being mouthy."

Though he insists he's still a Vancouver boy at heart, Jackson admits North Carolina is his current home.

"It's where we film Dawson's Creek, so it's where I've lived for the past three years."

Last season, Kevin Williamson, who created Dawson's Creek and watched over each episode, left to work on his movie Teaching Mrs. Tingle and a new TV series Wasteland.

Both were critical failures.

"We definitely had growing pains after Kevin left.

"The quality of the scripts really dipped because the new writers tried to imitate Kevin instead of creating their own style," he says.

"I think we've finally gotten over that hump.

"The final scripts of this season have been as good as they are different. The season finale is dynamite."

Jackson rolls his eyes in feigned disbelief at the news that his Dawson's Creek co-star James Van Der Beek says he finds it almost impossible to go out in public for fear of being mobbed by fans. "There's no doubt the show has dedicated fans, but they're hardly a menace.

"The only thing I've noticed is that there is a pitch to the screams of young girls that can't possibly be simulated in a lab.

"There is also a pack mentality with these girls that shows how little we've progressed from apes, but I think James is exaggerating just a tad.

"Then again, maybe it's because I'm the show's comic relief and not the heart-throb."

Neal Moritz, who produced The Skulls, and Rob Cohen, who directed the film, insist it is his everyman quality that will give Jackson a long career.

"I think Joshua is the next Tom Hanks," says Moritz. "He's likable without being a pin-up boy."

Cohen agrees.

"Josh doesn't look as if he walked off a Calvin Klein ad. It was essential to the success of The Skulls that we had someone who looked like he came from a working-class background."

In The Skulls, Jackson plays a scholarship student who is accepted into a powerful secret society that proves to be more corrupt than he could ever have thought possible.

The problems which arise when he tries to leave the society are a far cry from the teenage angst of Dawson's Creek.

During the second year of Dawson's Creek, Jackson briefly dated his co-star Katie Holmes, but the affair is history.

He does concede that "dating a co-star is tricky. There's the feeling you shouldn't date co-workers, but when you're surrounded by beautiful women, it seems difficult and foolish not to."