James Van Der Beek: Breaking the 'Rules'

Blue-eyed, hunky, clean-living Dawson, the campus hell raiser? James Van Der Beek couldn't wait to go bad...as Sean Bateman in The Rules of Attraction, the latest of the Bret Easton Ellis novels to be filmed. James got a chance to break out of his Dawson cage in Varsity Blues but that role still didn't tarnish the good guy image. His portrayal of wasted, conflicted and self-absorbed Sean in this movie will certainly do the trick and display the actor's versatility at last. When we spoke with him in L.A. recently, James gave us the skinny on the new film, his reasons for taking such a controversial role and his plans to direct some "Dawson's" episodes.

The actor hit it off really well with writer/director Roger Avary who also wrote Pulp Fiction. "I loved the script. I thought it was really honest and raw. I loved the way the story was told. I thought it was completely different than anything I'd seen before, and certainly different from anything that's out there now. And the character was an incredibly complex, conflicted, individual, which is the exact opposite of what I did on the TV show. So it really seemed perfect. I just couldn't wait to get the opportunity to do it but there was a lot of resistance to me playing the role." Not a big surprise to us. "My work on Dawson's Creek doesn't exactly scream Sean Bateman. A lot of people were unwilling to entertain the possibility that I could do it."

The actor met with Avary, who saw something wicked behind those cool eyes. James didn't have to audition but there was opposition. "Roger pretty much just insisted on it and said, 'no, I'm casting this guy' no matter what the producer said or what people's managers and agents said. The movie fell apart twice before we could finally get it going. Roger just stuck to his guns."

"Rules" presents a campus packed with dysfunctional, wastrels who can't connect with others and spend most of their time self-destructing. We wondered if this was anything like Van Der Beek's college experience.

"No. It's not like we were setting out to make something that was representative of the majority of people's college experiences. We were concentrating on three specific people who were so well formed in the script. It was more of a human story than a (college story). There's a lot of truth to what happens. These people exist. And these emotions exist. And these instincts are there. It's just a matter of how much you listen to them, I guess."

Van Der Beek would like to take on more risky and risqué material in future. "I had no interest in playing the same character I play nine months out of the year. Plus, if I'm going to ask people to pay eight or nine bucks to go see something, I'm not going to give them something they can see for free every week. To me it made total sense to let other people know that I was willing and able to do something different. I think people tend to assume that when you do a TV show then that's what you do and who you are." He has his criteria when selecting a role. "Is it something I want to be a part of story wise? Then, is the character fascinating to me? Can I play this guy the way no one else can? That's the question you ask yourself sometimes."

The actor had to play Dawson and Bateman simultaneously. Dawson is basically honorable but the Bateman character wouldn't know a healthy relationship if it hit him broadside and respect for the opposite sex isn't exactly his credo. Miraculously, the actor found a balance. "I did this movie while I was doing Dawson's Creek. I would fly to L.A. and shoot "Rules" for three or four days then get back on a plane and shoot Dawson's [In North Carolina] for three or four days. I was working and flying seven days a week sometimes. Because I had both extremes, I was kind of in this great, happy balanced place, so it was a great time for me. I was so happy shooting this, that when I saw the first cut, and once I stopped playing the character, I really left him behind. The second to the last day, I remember sitting down with Shannyn [Sossamon] and saying 'I'm ready to not be Bateman anymore'. I just kind of left it and went right back into the show and it was like this whole experience had never happened. I was just back doing the same thing I had been doing for five years. When I saw the first cut I was kind of struck by how unhappy Sean is all the time. All I had taken with me is how great a time I had doing it."

Oddly, the most challenging scenes for the actor were not those of decadence but the technical aspects of Avary's innovative filmmaking. For example, a shot that involves two characters marching simultaneously down two hallways in a split screen shot that finally blends into one.

"It was like the second day of shooting. Technically it was a nightmare, but it worked. That's the great thing about having someone like Roger at the helm. He had to shoot it with a motion-control camera and we literally had to time it so that we would walk down the hallway, stop, play the scene looking in the lens and then one minute and twenty-two seconds after action, the camera would pull back , so we had to time it down to that. We had to marry Shannyn's performance, pick a take, turn around to me, and I played it with an earwig. With some directors, you think, God, this is going to take all day but on this set there was this attitude of, 'Alright, okay. We can do this."

James admits he has a dark side. Everybody does. "It's just a matter of how much you listen to it or let yourself counteract it, I guess. The Bateman character is deep into drink, drugs and casual sex. James gets his "high" from his work. "If there's something that you care about and want to get better at and work at, that's your anti-drug and for me it's acting. It's your passion, your goal or focus. Just any old hobby wouldn't do it. I think having a passion is probably the best way [to stay off drugs]."

Van Der Beek has a lot of scenes in the film with Shannyn Sossamon [A Knight's Tale] and found her non-technical style to be both challenging and exciting. "Working in television, you get proficient in all the technical aspects of filmmaking. It just makes the job a lot easier. Whereas Shannyn completely runs on instinct. You never know what you're going to get from her. You really don't. It's like working with an animal or child. She doesn't know how to lie. That's tremendously exciting for me to work with someone like that. It forces you to be on your toes. I had a great time working with her."

The more experienced actor helped his leading lady get back on track at times. "She had kind of lost it because when she feels like she's lying, sometimes she freaks out. It was just total instinct. I screamed at her. Not like, 'you stupid actress, how could you forget your lines?' but I yelled, 'Hey', and repeated the line and locked into her and caught her. And Shannyn being Shannyn, rolled with it. And she was great."

Dawson has been part of the actor's life for five years. This is the show sixth and possibly last season. Is the role like a comfy shoe or is he frustrated? "It's as easy to fall into as a bad habit. Sometimes. Because I've done (Dawson) for five years. Playing Sean was almost like swimming upstream. Then, I'd get on a plane back to Wilmington and kind of drift back in. When I played Dawson, I woke up in one bed and drove to work a certain way and saw the same people and same makeup trailer and same script and it was easy to keep the two worlds separate."

The show is still challenging to the actor and James will be directing an episode this year. "Dawson's Creek is the perfect place to break yourself in because the crew is right there for you and the actors." He has great respect for his fellow "Creekers" and he knows which buttons not to push.

"I'm not going to be in their face saying, 'C'mon'. I just want to make it fun for them. It'll be like the monkeys running the asylum."

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.