Joshua Jackson Breaks Silence on James Van Der Beek's Death, Reunites With Katie Holmes for New Film, and Champions Cancer Screening

Joshua Jackson stepped back into the public eye Tuesday with a lot to say. In a single morning appearance on NBC's Today, the 47-year-old actor addressed the death of his Dawson's Creek co-star James Van Der Beek for the first time, announced a cancer awareness campaign with AstraZeneca, and revealed he has reunited on screen with Katie Holmes in an upcoming film. It was a full circle moment three decades in the making.

Joshua Jackson on James Van Der Beek's Death: "The Processing Is Ongoing"

Van Der Beek died February 11, aged 48, after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2024, leaving behind his wife, Kimberly, and their six young children. Jackson had stayed quiet in the weeks that followed — until Tuesday.

"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 the processing is ongoing," Jackson said on Today.

He didn't stop there. "He became what we used to just call a good man," Jackson told the program. "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."

Jackson acknowledged their shared history without overstating his place in it: "I know both of us look back on that time with great fondness. But I will also say that I know that I'm really just a footnote in what he actually accomplished in his life."

The two had drifted apart after Dawson's Creek wrapped in 2003 but reconnected when Van Der Beek's diagnosis became public. Jackson recalled attending a cast reunion that became something more significant: "We were there to be able to help his family through his treatment. The purpose of it was beautiful."

Get Body Checked Against Cancer: Joshua Jackson Teams With AstraZeneca and the NHL

The Today appearance was not purely a tribute. AstraZeneca and Joshua Jackson have teamed up as part of a national public health campaign designed to encourage fans to Get Body Checked Against Cancer and be proactive in speaking with their doctor.

Jackson joins Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty in the campaign — a pairing that draws a deliberate parallel between a body check on ice and a timely check-in with a physician. The connection to hockey is personal for him.

"Guys don't like to talk about this. We don't like to go to the doctor, we don't like to deal with this stuff. And I know a lot of ways in your life, like that stiff upper lip thing can be helpful, but in this it's not helpful at all," Jackson said.

With an estimated 65% of Americans behind on recommended cancer screenings and cancer rates rising among people under 50, the campaign directs people to Getbodychecked.com to find a screening provider and questions to raise with their doctor. Van Der Beek's death — one of the most high-profile colorectal cancer losses in recent memory — gives Jackson's involvement an urgency that no press release could manufacture.

Katie Holmes Film Happy Hours: Joshua Jackson Calls the Reunion "Magical"

Grief was not the only thread running through Tuesday's interview. Jackson also shed light on Happy Hours, an upcoming film written and directed by Katie Holmes in which the former Dawson's Creek co-stars play a couple revisiting a decades-old romance.

Holmes is both starring in and directing the movie, which is part of three films exploring a couple's evolving relationship. Jackson described the project as something only their shared history could have produced.

"She's a lifelong friend now," Jackson said. "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."

In the film, the pair play a couple who dated as teens and explore the possibility of a rekindled romance when they reconnect years later — art following life with unusual precision given that Holmes and Jackson briefly dated during filming of Dawson's Creek's first season.

"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."