“Dawson's Creek” star Kerr Smith looks back at gay storyline sparking controversy: People 'were angry as hell'“”
- - “Dawson's Creek” star Kerr Smith looks back at gay storyline sparking controversy: People 'were angry as hell'“”
Raechal ShewfeltNovember 6, 2025 at 1:17 AM
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Kerr Smith costars in 'Dawson's Creek' in season 5
Dawson's Creek actor Kerr Smith recalls that, after his character, Jack, was one-half of the first passionate kiss between two men on network TV, there was backlash.
"We had protests outside the stage, yelling and screaming," Smith said on a recent episode of the podcast Pod Meets World. "There was a brick wall that separated me, eating my lunch, from a crowd of people that were angry as hell. If I had walked out there, they'd probably beat the crap out of me. Because it was in the South, too, which didn't help."
Kerr's Jack shared a kiss with Ethan (Adam Kaufman), at the end of season 3, the 2000 episode called "True Love." It was the first passionate kiss between two men on network TV. More would follow, setting off the Family Research Council, according to Thea Glassman's 2023 book Freaks, Geeks, and Dawson's Creek.
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The cast of 'Dawson's Creek' in season 3
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But Smith hadn't known Jack would be gay until creator Kevin Williamson told him a couple of months into the job.
At the time, Smith was "very, very scared," he said.
"Now looking back in hindsight, I just wanna say this: I'm super, super proud of what we pulled off because as you know, the face of television has changed, and I think people's acceptance of other people, sexuality, or whatever it might be is much more broad and much more open these days."
Smith wasn't always sure he'd feel that way. He'd been on the hit show for only weeks when creator Williamson asked him to go out for coffee with him, where he told him that Jack was gay.
Initially, Smith was thrown and thought it "a real bummer." Playing a gay character on TV then was much different.
"So what happened was I said, 'Look, can you give me the day or a couple of days, because I need to make some phone calls and basically call everyone that I respect," Smith said. He needed to "make the right decision here because at that time in 1998, this is a tough one."
Of course, he decided to forge ahead playing Jack McPhee, a friend of the Capeside crowd he'd played since the second season in 1998. He didn't know it then, but he would stay through season 6, which ended in 2003, the show's last.
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Actor Kerr Smith pictured in March 2024
Smith explained to Entertainment Weekly in January 2010 that he was happy with what came out of his work.
"It was a risky thing to do at that time," he said. "Nowadays, it's like, who cares? You got a gay character on every show. So I guess we did our job. We opened people's minds and it's not a big deal anymore, which I think was great."
The actor, who went on to appear on shows such as Riverdale, The Resident, and The Fosters, is writing a book about his former series, I Don't Want to Wait: My Journey on Dawson's Creek Without a Paddle.
Listen to the full conversation above.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
