Katie Holmes has some serious catching up to do with her old Dawson’s Creek pals.
In a recent chat with The Times (the fancy U.K. newspaper, not the crossword puzzle), Holmes, 45, confessed that while she enjoys staying in touch with her former co-stars, the whole WhatsApp scene is just way too much for her.
When someone mentioned there’s a long-running Dawson’s Creek WhatsApp group (thanks to Joshua Jackson, the notorious group-chat instigator), Holmes feigned shock and fake outrage: “Really? There’s a WhatsApp group?”
“We all text occasionally, but I had no idea about this WhatsApp thing,” she admitted. “Honestly, I’m terrible at WhatsApp. I never check it because it’s just too much. It’s like trying to keep up with a soap opera, but with more emojis.”
Holmes, who played Dawson Leery’s BFF Joey Potter on the ’90s teen series, revealed she does keep in touch with Jackson, James Van Der Beek (a.k.a. Dawson), and Michelle Williams “every now and then.”
“Everyone’s grown up and is super busy, but the bond is unbreakable,” she said, probably while humming the show’s theme song under her breath.
In other news from the interview, Holmes shared that her Dawson’s Creek days helped shape her fashion sense. “My fashion education came from TV and movies. I learned that a cable-knit sweater over a plain one could reveal a character’s deep, dark secrets. Or, you know, just that they get cold easily.”
“I fell in love with the idea that clothes could express a part of someone’s soul,” she added, making it sound like she might have spent a little too much time in the costume department’s wine cellar.
Dawson’s Creek aired on the WB (now the CW, because initials are trendy) from 1998 to 2003. Holmes has often talked about how the teen drama series shaped her career. Just last year, she told Glamour how it helped her navigate her teenage angst. “As a teenager, I was bursting with feelings, trying to transition from girl to woman,” she said. “Kevin Williamson (the showrunner) had this magical way of putting words to those feelings that made me go, ‘Oh, so that’s what I’m feeling. Thanks, Kevin!'”
Playing Joey Potter helped Holmes process her real-life teenage woes. “For me, playing Joey was like therapy. It was like, ‘Oh, that’s what that means. I get it now.’ It was a fun and deep experience,” she told Glamour, possibly while doodling “Joey + Pacey 4eva” in her notebook.
Holmes, who is mom to her 18-year-old daughter Suri, also previously expressed amazement at the show’s lasting popularity. “It’s pretty wild,” she said during an April 2023 chat on Sirius XM’s The Jess Cagle Show. “I’m amazed people still connect with it. The world was so different back then—no smartphones, no social media. It was all about the simple life and friendship drama.”
So, while Holmes might not be the queen of WhatsApp, she’s definitely still got a hold on the nostalgia crown. Now, if only someone could explain to her how to mute a group chat…
