James Van Der Beek
Interview By: Dan Deevy
“Wow, I just saw Dawson masturbating!” was the first thought that entered my mind as I left the theater.
That’s right, squeaky clean Dawson Leery lets it all hang out in The Rules of Attraction. After six years on the WB’s Dawson’s Creek and several tame feature films, actor James Van Der Beek finally gets down and very dirty in this adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel.
Taking on the character of Sean Bateman, younger brother to Patrick Bateman of American Psycho would not be an easy thing for any teen pop star to do. For actor James Van Der Beek, however, it was something he knew he had to do.
Dividing his weeks between shooting on Dawson’s Creek in North Carolina and filming Rules in Los Angeles, seriously wore the actor down. “When I actually got the opportunity to do this movie, come hell or high water I was going to do this thing and put everything I had into it. By the end of it I was exhausted,” James says. “But I was really happy with the finished product.”
One of the most talked about scenes in the movie involves a steamy encounter between James’ character Sean and Paul Denton, played by super hot finally being noticed, Ian Somerhalder. “I really liked that scene when I first read it,” he says. “I loved the fact that it was Paul’s fantasy about how Sean would act. In his ideal world this is how Sean would be.”
In split screen style, the audience gets to watch as Paul’s fantasy is played out on one side, while simultaneously and rather painfully watching what is actually occurring on the other; which unfortunately for Paul isn’t much.
But now that James has actually kissed a man on screen, questions of course begin to arise. “People have been asking me, ‘aren’t you
Initially, James had hoped that the now infamous ‘kiss’ would actually remain a secret and be a surprise for movie goers. But we all know something like that was going to be pretty hard to keep under wraps.
“It was funny because it was so not a big deal. I mean it was the first time I ever had to do a scene like that; where I’ve had to kiss a guy,” James says almost whispering the last part. “But we only did one take of actual kissing and it was over in like ten seconds. It was really a much smaller deal than I thought it would be.” (Looking into those crystal clear blue eyes of his, made me wonder how anyone, straight or gay could be willing or able to stop after only ten seconds!)
Rules was filmed right after the actors strike in 2001 and as a result, they ended up with a top notch cast and crew on a minimal budget.
“Some sets your on, you just can’t wait to go home or go to the bar and have a beer,” he says. “This felt like we were at the bar; with out the beer. It was really an ideal work environment, because everyone involved believed in what we were doing.”
This film puts James into situations that most people would never expect to see the actor in; masturbating, taking a dump, beating up women, and far less than perfect hygiene. But he does it all with a hold nothing back kind of attitude.
“You get a script and you love it,” he begins. “You find a director that you
Coming from the somewhat conservative suburban town of Cheshire, Connecticut one would think that it’s going to be really hard for certain people, his parents in particular to see the fruits of all his hard work. “It’s gonna be damn near impossible!” he says with a laugh.
This won’t be the first time that the Van Der Beek’s have seen their little boy in some compromising positions. “They’ve seen me do some crazy stuff on stage in New York. I did this Nicky Silver play that I told them ‘you can not come!’ that they snuck into anyway. Thank god I didn’t see them. But they were really cool afterwards. But I don’t know if there’s anyway to prepare them for the kind of situations they’re going to see their first born in tonight.”
Some close friends have even found it difficult seeing James in this new light. “I saw it with this really sweet couple that my fiancé and I are friends with and she couldn’t even look at me afterwards.”
While confident in the quality of work that he and the rest of the cast and crew put into the making of this film, James is not under the delusion that everyone will be praising them for it.
“Not everyone is going to like it,” he admits. “It’s a brutal film and I think it’s going to upset a lot of people. But it’s even better than I thought it could be when I first read the script.”
