Dawson's Creek: Kerr Smith says backlash over gay storyline made him feel "isolated"

Kerr Smith has pulled back the curtain on his Dawson's Creek experience.

Back in the late 90s, the TV landscape changed forever with the introduction of Jack McPhee (Smith) in the second season of the hit teen drama.

While it seemed like his character was going to be a new love interest for Joey Potter (Katie Holmes), it was later revealed that he was gay.

The following season, TV history was made when Jack shared a tender kiss with fellow Ethan Brody (Adam Kaufman), marking the first time two men shared a same sex kiss on a major American television network.

On 10 November, Smith's new memoir, I Don't Want to Wait, will hit bookshelves worldwide.

Described as the "ultimate chronicle of a show that fans can't help but return to, time and time again," the book includes candid interviews with his former cast mates, creator Kevin Williamson and executive producer Greg Berlanti.

The 54-year-old actor also reflects on his Dawson's Creek journey, including the moment he discovered Jack would be the show's first gay character.

"We were shooting in downtown Wilmington that day. Between shots, as they reset lights and turned cameras around, Kevin came up to me at video village, pulled me aside, and said, 'Kerr, let's go get a cup of coffee,'" Smith said in an excerpt, per Variety.

"I immediately think, 'Holy shit, am I being fired?! Am I about to lose the best job I've ever had – six episodes in?' Then I thought, Or does he want to make the character gay? I know that sounds insane, but in the back of my head, I had this idea because the core four were facets of Kevin's personality, and there wasn't a character on the show that represented his sexuality. 'Let's go get a cup of coffee.' It was a loaded moment, followed by me blurting out, 'Yeah, sure, let's do it.'"

One of Smith's theories proved correct when he revealed that Williamson pitched Jack's gay storyline during their impromptu coffee meeting.

"Kevin looked me in the eye again – this is actually a kind of painful memory, even to this day – and said, 'Look, we want this to be Jack. We want to have Jack make an impact as a teen gay character on prime time. We can do it with you, or we can find somebody else, and we'll just, ya know... figure something else for Jack to do,'" he recalled.

"In that moment, I was pretty sure I knew what that meant: Do this, or I'll create some other character who will and nice knowin' you. To be honest, it hurt. This was my first really big prime-time role – one of the best roles then on TV - and three months in, I was being asked to take on this huge responsibility; my character was about to go from a likeable new love interest to a guy that may not be accepted by a significant number of people.

"Then again, there was another group, one that skewed younger and more sympathetic, that would absolutely love Jack's new direction. This could really help them."

Smith wasn't the only one anxious during the interaction, with Williamson revealing to the former in another interview: "I was so nervous to tell you and, in a weird way, ask your permission, because if you had said no, that would have disrupted my entire plan. I mean, I was rocking and rolling with that story.

"And once I started talking to Greg and Julie about it, and Paul, we were all excited. So we were a little nervous that you would be like, 'I don't want to do that. That's not what I signed up for.' Had that been your response, we would've had to do a lot of redeveloping."

While Jack's coming out story helped usher in a positive wave of LGBTQIA+ representation and was embraced by the majority of viewers, it unsurprisingly garnered hateful attention from religious conservatives, who protested the show outside the studio.

"I remember hearing them while sitting at the table where we'd have lunch. The cafeteria was right near the front of the stage, separated from the studio gates by a cement wall," he continued. "I never got threats, and I was mostly operating with blinders on back then... but I wasn't entirely without my guard up."

Smith went on to say that despite receiving support from the cast and crew, "hearing those people screaming about Jack and gay people and abomination, it was hard not to feel isolated."

"Especially since the cement wall was decorated with a hand-painted portrait of the 'core four.' Through my entire run on Dawson's Creek, I never felt more like the fifth wheel," he concluded.

Check out our full breakdown of Jack's groundbreaking Dawson's Creek kissing scene here or below.