#james-van-der-beek

#james-van-der-beek

I now know why people call it heartbreak when you lose someone close to you. There is a feeling of devastation and pain that runs so deep in the heart, I didn't know it would hurt so badly. He was my person, the one I went to for any and all things. I've looked up to him since I was born. He has never failed to be there for me whenever I needed him.

But he was a real-life ally, too. He'd been a long-time supporter of gay marriage, before same-sex unions were nationally legalized, and in 2015 appeared in a Funny Or Die video satirizing Indiana's bogus, anti-LGBTQ+ "religious freedom" law alongside future queer Anna Camp. And that allyship seemed to influence some of the projects he took on, especially of late. For instance, he featured heavily into a subplot from Pose's first season that eventually got ditched,

Holmes, who rose to fame alongside Van Der Beek while playing his on-again, off-again love interest Joey Potter, began her message by directly addressing her longtime friend. "James, thank you," she wrote. "To share a space with your imagination is sacred - breathing the same air in the land of make believe and trusting that each other's hearts are safe in their expression. These are some of the memories, along with laughter, conversations about life, James Taylor songs - adventures of a unique youth."