Happy Hours costars Joshua Jackson and Katie Holmes are looking back at their Dawson’s Creek relationship with a particular kind of fondness.
“The time that we spent together when we were young is very precious to both of us,” Jackson, 47, told a reporter at the Tribeca Film Festival, while standing beside Holmes and holding her hand in a clip shared on Sunday, June 7. “And [it] is like one of the core personal and professional relationships in my life.”
Jackson and Holmes, also 47, starred on the beloved TV drama as Pacey and Joey, respectively. The series, which aired from 1998 until 2003, ended with the pair’s characters romantically involved. Offscreen, Jackson and Holmes dated for about a year after the show’s debut.
“We had talked about it over the years, and then — I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit — because then she creates this beautiful space for the two of us to come back and work together and tell a beautiful story,” he explained. “A hopeful story, a real human story and for me, I was both flattered and very excited to have the opportunity to come back and share this space with you after all of these years.”
He continued, “And have a story that is ours to tell. Right? You wrote this for us. You did the whole thing. So it was magical for me to be able to come back. And you waited for me, which I appreciated.”
For Holmes, her “working relationship” with Jackson is something she considers to be “very sacred.”
“I take it very seriously and I want to do right by Josh. I have a great deal of respect. So I wanted it to be right. We’ve often talked about doing something again, but we never knew what. So it was really about that and agreeing to go for it, I suppose,” she said in a separate clip shared on Sunday. “He said yes, and that made me feel very good.”
In the summer of 2025, Jackson and Holmes sent Dawson’s Creek fans into a joy spiral after the pair were spotted filming Happy Hours together in New York City. The project is set to be a trilogy, following a couple deciding if their fizzled connection is worth a second chance.
“We spent so much intense time at a particular moment in our lives and then we have maintained our friendship for all of these years,” Jackson said about working with Holmes in a March interview with Today, “but we’ve never had a chance to be on camera together, and it was magic.”
“Katie wrote this beautiful story for the two of us that is the three phases of a love story,” Jackson continued. “So we shot the fun part, which is the falling in love, and she’s cutting it together now. And that will come out and hopefully it will give us the opportunity to go back and make the other two.”
