But yes, hes aware of our skepticism.

He is way more culpable.

Or, rather, Pacey.

Joshua Jackson talks to Bustle about playing Dan in ‘Fatal Attraction’ and played Pacey Witter on ‘D…

So, yeah, by the series end, the second banana stole the showandthe girl.

Hes not visibly irritated by the subject ofDawsons, and has evenleanedintohis legacy on occasion.

But Jackson says he was never able to enjoy his heartthrob status.

As Dan in ‘Fatal Attraction,’ Joshua Jackson feels years away from Pacey Witter in ‘Dawson’s Creek.'

I was a 20-year-old trying to figure it out.

I didnt feel I was a role model for anybody.

Suddenly, every month, Im making more than any of my friends parents were making in a year.

With Pacey Witter in ‘Dawson’s Creek,’ Joshua Jackson turned on the charm offensive.

And you get the sense ofI dont deserve any of this.

That all felt very unreal to me, very dissociative, if Im being honest.

Hes relieved that, unlike many of his co-stars, he didnt immediately settle down and start a family.

Decades after playing Pacey Witter, Joshua Jackson talks about his time on ‘Dawson’s Creek.'

I would not have wished that on any woman.

Jackson is much more comfortable now, in what he calls the husband phase of my career.

With the exception ofDr.

Joshua Jackson talks about supporting the career of his wife, Jodie Turner-Smith.

Even Dan is adoring and faithful, until he isnt.

Theyre trying but failing to live up to their own ideal of themselves.

Now hes learning what life is like for most working parents, each in service of their own ambition.

Joshua Jackson and his wife, Jodie Turner-Smith, have a toddler daughter.

[Jodie and I] try not to take long-term jobs at the same time, he says.

Its hard, but the opposite would be harder.

Nor does he want Turner-Smith to be sidelined from her professional opportunities to be the primary caregiver.

Im deeply invested in Jodies career.

Altruistically, because I want to see her shine and achieve the things that shes worked so hard for.

Few movies could be more radically at odds with Jacksons approach to partnership and fatherhood thanFatal Attraction.

But at test screenings, wow, did the 80s-era audiences hate it.

Rather, hes motivated by disgust for his own character.

Dan is kind of a monster, he says.

It means more to me now as a father, even more than as a husband.

Jackson speaks aspirationally and with such sincerity that I wonder what a good guy does for a good time?

Six weeks out, a couple of guys drop out.

Then a couple more guys drop out.

So I had the most unbelievable solo tour through Japans backcountry.

Its not a parabolic trajectory, right?

he asks, rhetorically.

It doesnt just go up.

I continue to find joy in the thing itself.

This business spends a lot of time trying to distract you with pretty shiny things.

He opens his palms.

The point of the game, as I see it now, is to survive the ebbs and flows.

(Jackson played a lawyer and a husband.)

I have never been involved in a project from the very beginning, he says proudly.