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James van der Beek is celebrating her daughter Olivia’s 15th birthday. And this is very memorable for the actor, as she is the same age as his character, Dawson Reilly, who was in the pilot episode of Dawson Creek.
In an Instagram post shared on Thursday. On September 25th, the 45-year-old actor wrote, “My oldest is now 15 years old today. The same age as Dawson was on the pilot.”
In the video post, Olivia, whom he shares with his wife, Kimberly van der Beek, took to the stage to sing “I Don’t Wait Wait,” Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Wait Wait,” which served as the theme song for the show at Dawson’s Creek Reunion Charity event at the Richard Rogers Theatre in New York on Monday, September 22nd.
“To see you wearing that red dress, I’m confidently taking center stage among all the people I’ve known and deeply cherished for so long… I’m in awe of my adoration,” continued Vander Beek.
Featuring a live reading of the show’s pilot episode, the event was held in honor of van dervigk, who was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer last year, to benefit F cancer.
Van der Beek went on to explain how Olivia is growing. “I’ve always joked that you gave ‘parent evidence’, but last year I saw you accelerated to so many big decisions, jumping into so many activities, budgeting your time, homework and hair (from my point of view it seems like it requires roughly the same time and focus).
He also reflected on a recent school sporting event in which Olivia misinformed her father about his tickets. Despite the error, Van Der Beek said she was proud of her daughter’s response and referred to her mature approach as “what you think you’ve learned from me.”
“You quickly took responsibility. I said it was the first time I’ve done it all. I apologized briefly and did what I could to fix it. I was proud of the way you handled the confusion more than if you had done it all perfectly.”
He concluded the post by encouraging Olivia to “continue to steal big swings” and “continue to steal flaws in risk” before encouraging Olivia to be “truly to stay true to who you are.”
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“Because you know exactly who your most authentic self is, as only you know your lifetime… I can assure you that you will love her, Happy Birthday Kid.
The actor was unable to attend the in person reunion due to “two gastric viruses”, but he appeared in the reunion via pre-recorded video. Lin Manuel Miranda stepped in to read the role of Dawson Leery.
Dawson alumni Jason Moore directed the event produced by Carl Ogawa, Moore, Williams, Thomas Kyle, Maggie Bloune, Kevin Williamson and Greg Berlanti. The original show aired for six seasons from 1998 to 2003, addressing key topics in the age genre.
Van Del Beek and Kimberly are also parents to daughters Annabelle, 11, Emilia, 9 and Gwendolyn, 6, and sons Joshua, 13, and Jeremiah, 2.
