NEED TO KNOW
Following their viral kiss at the Dawson’s Creek Class Reunion, Busy Philipps is opening up about her former onscreen boyfriend Joshua Jackson — and whether they have ever “made out in real life.”
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE after she and Jackson appeared onstage at the Sept. 22 charity event to perform the 1998 pilot episode of Dawson’s Creek with the rest of the cast, Philipps, 46, spoke about the steamy smooch she and the actor shared during one intimate scene.
During the performance, Philipps didn’t play her character Audrey Liddell (who shows up in season 5), but instead read the part of Tamara Jacobs (Leann Hunley), the 36-year-old teacher who becomes romantically involved with her 15-year-old student Pacey Witter (Jackson), setting off a season-long story arc between the pair that culminates in Tamara leaving their fictional town of Capeside, Mass.
The scene in question features a long kiss between Pacey and Tamara, which Jackson, 47, and Philipps recreated — complete with a dramatic dip, to the delight of the crowd.
“We had run through the whole thing the day before,” Philipps tells PEOPLE of the live performance. “And so we were just doing sound cues and lighting cues onstage the day of. That’s all we had time to do.”
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“That was when Josh and I sat down, and I looked at him and I was like, ‘I mean, we could really kiss,’ ” the actress reveals.
According to Philipps, she’s used to doing live readings of scripts, as she’s worked on her The Thrilling Adventure Hour comedy stage show and podcast for nearly 20 years.
“The thing is, you hold scripts, and it’s very similar vibes,” she says. “You don’t actually kiss… when you’re doing it.”
“But I know from doing that show that occasionally, when there’s a really big character thing where it’s two characters kiss or something like that, the crowd goes nuts if you actually do it,” Philipps continues. “Because they’re not expecting it.”
The CW alum says that Jackson was completely on board, telling her: “I’m in. I think we got to give the people what they want.”
“Josh is hilarious and cracks me up. And yeah, we spent a lot of time making out when we were on that show — only for the show,” she teases. “We never made out in real life.”
Busy Philipps/Instagram
Despite the kiss being planned ahead of time, Philipps says Jackson was still able to surprise her with one small element of the kiss.
“I did not know he was going to dip me,” she shares. “I was like, ‘Here we go, babe.’ ”
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Philipps and Jackson were joined by costars Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes, Mary Beth Peil, John Wesley Shipp, Mary-Margaret Humes, Nina Repeta, Kerr Smith and Meredith Monroe at the one-night-only charity event at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City, in partnership with F Cancer.
The night held a bittersweet tone with the notable absence of star James Van Der Beek, who was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer last year and dropped out of the event the day before after developing two different stomach viruses. The reunion was spearheaded by Williams, 45, to raise awareness for F Cancer and show support for Van Der Beek, 48.
The part of Dawson Leery was read by Lin-Manuel Miranda, while his former Hamilton costar Renée Elise Goldsberry narrated and hosted the evening.
