Dawson's Creek Star Busy Philipps Believed One Storyline Was 'Insanely Inappropriate'
In the lead-up to the on-stage "Dawson's Creek" reunion held in September of 2025, in which most of the original cast got together for a live reading of the pilot episode, Busy Philipps reflected on a poorly aged aspect of the script she was preparing to perform.
"[Pacey has] a really insanely inappropriate relationship with a teacher," she said while chatting with People. "Which by the way, is so wild."
During Season 1, which originally aired in 1998, 15-year-old Pacey (Joshua Jackson) has a full-blown romantic relationship with 36-year-old teacher Tamara Jacobs (Leann Hunley). Philipps observed: "It just goes to show you culturally how much we have changed for the better, right?"
Philipps' character — the bright, bubbly Audrey Liddell — doesn't show up until Season 5 so, ironically, she read the part of Tamara at the reunion event. After, she joked to series creator Kevin Williamson, who left "Dawson's Creek" after Season 2, well before Philipps joined the series: "'Well, Kevin, I guess you did write a part for me on 'Dawson's Creek.' You just didn't know that it would take 20 years for me to be the right age to play it."
The teacher-student romance didn't age well
Other "Dawson's Creek" alumni have expressed complicated feelings about the Tamara and Pacey romance. Kevin Williamson, the credited writer on the pilot episode, told Yahoo!: "I would not let that storyline fly today ... We're in an elevated state now where we talk about mental health and trauma and the repercussions of what happens to us when we're children. ... In today's world, I just don't think you can take storylines like that lightly."
Joshua Jackson offered a nuanced perspective to Business Insider. "I think it is real for a younger person to have sexual desires for an older person. But I think the onus remains upon the older person to be the adult and recognize that that's inappropriate," he said. "I think it's necessary to show storylines that have humans making mistakes. I don't think we presented [the relationship] as a beautiful or romantic thing."
The one-night-only "Dawson's Creek" cast reunion in New York City was a benefit for the organization F Cancer, prompted by series star James Van Der Beek's stage 3 colorectal cancer diagnosis. Van Der Beek was unable to attend in person as originally scheduled, so the part of Dawson was read by Lin-Manuel Miranda.