Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImageWhen Dawson's Creek was on the air in the late '90s, James Van Der Beek's face was everywhere. And yet, not everyone recognized the teen idol—and that ended up working in Justin Timberlake's favor.
The Friends With Better Lives star shared a funny story from his youth during a Wednesday chat with HuffPost Live. "I was in Vegas one New Year's and somebody came by and said, ''N Sync wants to meet you!' And at the time, 'N Sync was the second to Backstreet Boys—it was before they had blown up. They had just come out with some Christmas album, like at the same time 98 Degrees did," Van Der Beek, now 37, laughed, referencing the famous boy band's 1998 holiday album, Home for Christmas.
"So, I said, 'OK.' And I met them and they were so sweet. They were so nice. They were such cool kids and I immediately liked them," he recalled. "I remember that night, we were all going to some club and they were all too young. And so I went in and somehow passed my I.D. back so that Justin could get in with my I.D. Justin used it to get in and then tried to pass it off to [Lance Bass] to get in. By the third time [the bouncers] saw a James Van Der Beek I.D., they were like, 'Ah, I don't think so, James.'"
Van Der Beek also opened up about auditioning for the lead part on Dawson's Creek. At the airport, he bumped into Adrian Grenier, an actor friend of his at the time. "We were both testing for the same role and they sat us next to each other on the plane," the actor said of the awkward flight to L.A.
"I haven't really seen much cattiness," he said of auditioning. "There's enough work for everybody."