Kerr Smith Reflects on Why His Coming Out Story on 'Dawson's Creek' Was So Important

Kerr Smith is looking back on his time on Dawson’s Creek.

Ahead of his debut on Riverdale, the 47-year-old actor reflected on his time of the hit ’90s show and his character Jack McPhee’s landmark coming out story.

When Jack came out as gay in the two part-episode back in 1998, Dawson’s Creek made headlines for being the first primetime TV series to show two men sharing a passionate kiss.

“We were the first ones to do that. It was a crazy experience back then and you’re right, look at every single show now, it’s pretty amazing,” Kerr shared with TooFab. “There’s always a gay storyline, a lesbian storyline or whatever.”

Kerr then went on to say he felt a “huge” responsibility to get the storyline right and recalled having a discussion about it with show creator Kevin Williamson.

“I remember the day Kevin Williamson came down to Wilmington, North Carolina … He said, ‘Kerr, let’s go get some coffee,’” Kevin shared. “I went, ‘Oh no, am I fired?’ And he throws this idea, ‘We want to go down a different avenue with Jack,’ and I go, ‘What does that mean?’”

“Obviously, he always had the intention of making one of his characters gay, he was still in the closet at that point too and every character in ‘Dawson’s Creek’ is an extension of Kevin Williamson,” Kerr continued. “My storyline ended up being largely Greg Berlanti‘s. It was an intense experience and I remember calling everybody I respected and said, ‘Hey should I do this?’ Doing the first male-male kiss, I remember it was intense. I’m glad we did it and it was part of history.”

Dawson’s Creek is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video now.