‘I was so nervous’: Kerr Smith on Dawson’s Creek gay kiss backlash and homophobic abuse
Kerr Smith arrives at the celebration for the 100th episode of Dawsons Creek February 19, 2002 at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City. (Photo by Lawrence Lucier/Getty (Getty Images)
Kerr Smith has opened up about filming the first gay kiss on US primetime television in 2000 on Dawson’s Creek and the homophobic backlash he faced as a result.
Smith played Jack McPhee for five seasons on the hit American teen drama, which ran from 1998 to 2003 and became a defining coming-of-age series of its era.
Jack’s coming-out arc is widely remembered as a milestone for LGBTQ+ visibility in mainstream teen television.
The show is credited with the first kiss between two men to air on primetime network television in the United States, after Jack kissed Ethan (played by Adam Kaufman) in the third season finale.
Looking back, Smith shared with The Guardian that filming the scene left him on edge.
“I was so nervous for that kiss,” he recalled. “We did ten takes of it. Ethan was nervous too, no matter what he says now.”
Smith reveals he faced homophobic backlash after landmark gay storyline
The 53-year-old actor also shared that his car was vandalised with homophobic slurs after he played Jack, describing the incident as something he kept to himself for years.
Smith added the vandalism happened while he was filming horror movie The Forsaken in Yuma, Arizona, around 2001. Smith said he returned to his car to find it covered in red graffiti, including homophobic slurs.
He said he never discovered who did it or how they identified his vehicle.
Smith added that writing about the experience in his memoir was the first time he had ever put it into words. “I had never mentioned that to anybody until I decided to write it down on the page,” he said.
His book, I Don’t Want to Wait: My Life on Dawson’s Creek, will be released on 10 November in the US and Australia, followed by a UK publication date of 26 November.
Protests over Jack’s coming-out storyline
Smith also described the backlash around Jack’s storyline, saying Dawson’s Creek faced protests outside its Wilmington studio and that he remembered driving through crowds of demonstrators to get to work.
In November 2025, Smith similarly recalled being targeted by protesters after the show’s history-making moment, and said creator Kevin Williamson told him they planned to make Jack gay.
For Smith, he said the long-term impact of Jack’s story has far outweighed the hostility. “People come up to me and say, ‘Hey, Jack, the storyline changed my life.’”
