Joshua Jackson says he’s ‘very close’ with ex-girlfriend and ‘Dawson’s Creek’ costar Katie Holmes

Actor Joshua Jackson has reflected on a river of emotions flowing through the Dawson’s Creek cast — including his enduring affection for coster and former girlfriend Katie Holmes.

The star appeared on Tuesday’s episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson‘s Dinner’s on Me podcast, where he spoke about the highs and lows of his relationships with the cast of the beloved TV drama that also included James Van Der Beek, Michelle Williams, and Busy Philipps.

After discussing the cast rallying around Van Der Beek amid his colorectal cancer diagnosis, Jackson admitted that, while the cast remains close, “it’s not a daily call” in terms of frequency.

“Whether we talk to each other all the time, Busy and Michelle are very, very close, and Katie and I are very close,” Jackson added, referencing Holmes, his ex-girlfriend whom he dated between 1998 and 1999.

“Sometimes it’s not a weekly or monthly or even a half-yearly call,” Jackson said, but praised the times he has together with his peers, and said that “there’s probably no other people in your life that you are that forged to” than a cast of actors who’ve gone through a formative experience together.

He said that the cast grew closer “because you had to go through good, bad, happy, and ‘f— you and don’t talk to me’ and ‘I love you'” experiences.

Ferguson then asked Jackson if he’d attended Holmes’ Broadway production of Our Town, which he said he wasn’t able to attend because he was working.

The Modern Family actor then said that everyone he’s met who’s worked with Holmes “just speaks so highly of her,” to which Jackson replied that “she’s lovely.”

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Jackson and his costars appeared on Dawson’s Creek from 1998-2003, though the show’s enduring legacy has remained strong over the years.

In 2018, Entertainment Weekly reunited the primary cast — including Van Der Beek, Holmes, Williams, and Philipps — for a 20th anniversary reunion story.

“I loved that we were able to get in there in those formative years for people. That’s why people, I think, are so connected to it,” Williams said at the time. “When something affects you while you were growing up, it kind of stays in there forever. When you’re so permeable and open and trying to figure out who you are and what’s going on, whatever reaches you in those moments really becomes part of you.”