For some gay viewers, Jack McPhee was the character who made television feel a little less lonely.
He belonged in the world of crushes, friendship and complicated feelings that made Dawson’s Creek appointment viewing. And when he kissed another boy, the show let that longing become something audiences could actually see.
More than 25 years later, Kerr Smith still hears what that meant.
In a new interview with The Guardian, Smith looks back at playing Jack, the hostility surrounding the storyline and the viewers who continue to thank him.
“People come up to me and say, ‘Hey, Jack, the storyline changed my life.’”
A coffee invitation that changed Jack’s story
Smith joined the series in 1998, initially playing a potential romantic complication for Joey Potter. When creator Kevin Williamson invited him for coffee early in his run, Smith wondered whether his new job was already ending.
Instead, Williamson wanted to take Jack in a different direction. Smith recalls asking for time to consider the proposal before becoming part of the show’s gay coming-of-age story.
That journey led to the 2000 season-three finale, when Jack kissed Ethan, played by Adam Kaufman. It became a landmark moment for gay romance on US primetime television.
Smith remembers being nervous and filming ten takes. A director’s advice helped: approach it as two people who were attracted to each other, rather than making their genders the obstacle.
The kiss had a battle behind it
Earlier reporting adds another revealing detail. In a 2020 Us Weekly interview, episode co-writer Gina Fattore recalled the network asking for the scene to be filmed from across the street and worrying about its passion.
Showrunner Greg Berlanti wanted the opposite: an unmistakably romantic moment. He also later described wanting to correct the disappointment of earlier television that pulled away before two men’s lips met.
Those choices matter. Jack’s feelings deserved the same attention as the straight characters’ romances.
What viewers carried with them
Smith’s recollections include protests outside the studio and discovering homophobic graffiti on his car while working on The Forsaken. He says he never learned who was responsible.
Yet the affection from viewers remains the stronger thread in his account. For an audience that remembers searching for even a glimpse of itself on television, that enduring connection is easy to understand.
His memoir, I Don’t Want to Wait: My Life on Dawson’s Creek, arrives November 10 in the US, bringing together his memories and contributions from the people who made the series.
Capeside supplied plenty of romantic drama. Jack gave some viewers something more personal: a story they could recognise themselves in.
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