MADE TO BE BROKEN: An interview with The Rules of Attraction star James Van Der Beek By Ryan Kugler 10/14/02 Part 2 of 2

I saw on Ebay of all places, that they were selling a gay magazine of some sort with you on the cover. Was that something you did, authorized?

Yeah, I did the cover of Out magazine.

Tell us about that decision, because I know you're concerned about your image?

I got a call from my publicist to say that they want you on the cover of Out magazine. I said, "They know the character's not gay, right? She said, "Yeah." "They know I'm not gay, right?" She said, "Yeah." "They still want me on the cover?" She said, "Yeah." I said, "Okay."

Well it certainly helps with prejudice? They'll see you on the cover of that and go, "Oh, I guess it's o.k. to accept other people."

If one person says that then, yeah, great.

You seem really comfortable with a lot of what you had to do in the film. What was the biggest challenge? What did you approach that seemed hard to pull off?

The hardest thing was the stuff that was shot early on, because they knew they would discover so much throughout the course of shooting. We shot some of the split-screen shots really early -- the second day. The scene on the stairs was shot on the third night. I just remember really wanting to make sure that we explored every option and every avenue. I just remember trying all kinds of different things, doing a lot takes and asking to go again.

There was an episode of Dawson's Creek last year, which was pretty funny. You were walking out of a movie theater ripping Todd Solondz and his film Storytelling. Would you talk about your experience with that movie, because as it now stands, it's pretty incomplete, and I've heard rumors that things were shot. Can you clear that up a bit?

If I remember, there were two acts that were of equal length. One took place in 1985 on a college campus, and one was in the year 2000 in high school. In the 1985 section, the Selma Blair part of it, there were like ten characters, who were all kind of intertwined in each other's lives. I played this big man on campus, and I played him very effeminately. It was a lot of fun. I loved working with Todd. I actually did that during season four of Dawson's Creek. I just had a great time. I loved doing it. I think I worked like six days on it. It was a nice little part. Then I read The Rules of Attraction on the plane, got back to Wilmington, called my agent and said, "I love it." I love the script. I love everything about it. I said the only concern I have is that it's a little similar to what I did with the Todd Solondz thing, which was untitled then. My agent responded,"Yeah, bad news on that. Todd is cutting the entire thing because the movie is way too long." I said, "Will it be on the DVD?" "No, no, no, Todd wants to protect everybody, so he wants to keep the negative and he wants to burn it or something."

That opening act is now only like twenty minutes long and it just feels like something's missing.

Yeah, originally there were all kinds of characters; I was just the most famous of the people and I got the most attention. But, I literally hung up the phone and called Roger and said I want to do it. So, it was kind of great that it worked out that way, and I still got to work with Todd. I still had that experience under my belt, and I still have the confidence of having done that. In a way, I felt like I had a secret no one else knew.

How does your own college experience compare to Sean's?

It was pretty different, but at the same time, there were certain things that I took from my own college experience and kind of applied to some of what goes on.

What were some of those things?

Just in terms of the confusion of the time, which is what I didn't like about most college movies when I was in college. It's a really confusing time. I mean, you're trying to define yourself free of anyone else's perceptions of who you are. You know at your high school, it doesn't matter what they think anymore. With that comes a lot of insecurity and a lot of fear, and not everybody always makes the right choices. I sort of understood that.

Do you have any plans to go back to college or is it just too late now?

Not right now. I'm pretty satisfied with what I'm doing.

Spielberg went back.

I heard that. I might.

Have your parents seen this movie yet? Do you want them to? Are you afraid?

No. I've been trying to warn them. I've been trying to tell them to go to the website first.

Trying to slowly prepare them?

I did a play right after I did the pilot of Dawson's Creek that was pretty out there. It was a Nikki Silver play. I played a kid that kills both his parent and is thrown in jail and seduces his male psychiatrist. It was called My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine. But I told my parents that I didn't want them to come see it and they snuck in one night. Thank God I didn't see them in the audience. They were totally cool with it.

Do you want them to see this one?

If they really want to see it, there's no stopping them. They're really supportive and cool like that.

(Read the interview with Roger Avary)

(Read Ryan's review of The Rules of Attraction)

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