Busy Philipps’ controversial statement about Pacey Witter’s teacher!

Busy Philipps spoke about Dawson’s Creek’s most controversial love story, explaining why it’s impossible today.

The story of Pacey and ‘that teacher’

The story of Pacey Witter and his English teacher, Tamara Jacobs, has always been a topic of discussion for fans of ‘Dawson’s Creek.’

This was the show’s most controversial love story, where 15-year-old Pacey develops a relationship with his 36-year-old teacher, Tamara.

Recently, the show’s actress, Busy Philipps—who played Audrey Liddell—opened up about this story in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE.

She emphasized how strange it is to see how much we have progressed culturally and ‘changed for the better.’

Busy says that portraying such an “insanely inappropriate” relationship in a teen drama back then shows how much culture has changed.

This is truly important! Imagine, a plot like this would hardly be acceptable in any teen show today.

Busy found the “right role” after 20 years

Busy Philipps appeared in Season 5 of the show, meaning Pacey and Tamara’s story was long gone.

But a recent charity reunion event offered a fun twist.

The event was held for “F Cancer” to support the show’s star, James Van Der Beek (who has Stage 3 Colorectal Cancer).

At the reunion, where the show’s old pilot episode was read live, Busy read the role of Tamara Jacobs instead of her character, Audrey!

Joking about this, Busy said that perhaps series creator Kevin Williamson wrote the role for him, but it just took him 20 years to play it, so he could reach the character’s age!

What does Joshua Jackson think about this?

Pacey Witter himself, also known as Joshua Jackson, has spoken about this track.

In 2021, he said that while it may be “real” for a younger person to have sexual desires for an older person, the responsibility always lies with the older person to recognize how inappropriate it is.

Jackson said that the show didn’t present it as a “beautiful or romantic thing,” but rather, it needed to be portrayed as a mistake that’s part of life.

When rewatching old shows today, it’s interesting to think about how much our social standards have changed over time.

‘Dawson’s Creek’ will always be a classic, but this statement from Busy and Joshua clearly reflects the current mindset, which is definitely a positive change.