Backstage Pass: Katie Holmes From 17 magazine, March 1998

"A star is born on Dawson's Creek."

By Melanie Mannarino

To speak with Katie Holmes for even five minutes is to want to be her friend. Instead of immediately plugging her first TV series, Dawson's Creek, this drop-dead brunette beauty inquires about by diamond ring. "Wow, are you engaged?" she asks me in her on-set trailer: The trailer is a plain box done up in shades of blue. When the conversation shifts to the show, 18-year-old Katie admits how psyched she is, after filming seven episodes, to finally see herself on the air. "The others will all probably say, 'Oh no, I won't watch,'" she says, laughing. "But I'll admit that I'll be watching it, thinking, Oh, my God! I thought they were going to use a different take."

In DC, Katie plays Joey Potter, a sarcastic tomboy whose mouth spews forth the witchiest put-downs we've heard since Heathers. In one particularly barbed exchange in the pilot, Joey verbally skewered her rival Jen Lindley (Michelle Willams a.k.a. Tumor Face Williams), tossing off lines like, "I love your hair color--what number is it?" and mercilessly grilling the pretty blond about her virginity.

Besides keeping her elected enemy at bay, Joey's sarcasm also masks her growing attraction toward the show's lead character; Dawson (James Van Der Beek). "Joey has to come back with her wit," Katie explains with a smile. "It's the only way she knows how to deal with her pathetic existence." By that, Katie means not only Joey's secret crush but also her family life. The character has already lost her mother to cancer, and her father is in jail. In addition, her home isn't much more than a shack located on the wrong side of the creek, so to speak.

While Katie's life hasn't been nearly as tormented (she grew up in a loving, intact Toledo family), she does identify with some aspects of Joey's life. "Only a few girls get to be prom queens and get all the guys. Those girls are like Jen," she says. "Joey isn't the girl who gets all the guys. I wasn't like that, either, so I can relate."

Katie might not have been a prom queen, but her dedication to her high school must have earned her popularity points. Instead of winging out to LA for a second audition for Dawson's Creek, she stayed put in Toledo to act in her school's production of Damn Yankees. (She rescheduled the audition.) For a girl whose previous acting experience was only a small part in The Ice Storm (as Libbets Casey, Tobey Maguire's rich girlfriend), choosing school obligations over a shot at starring in a television series was a bold move. But Katie never thought a Midwestern girl could make it big, anyway. "I wanted to be an actress, but I'm from Ohio," she explains. "I told myself, Get a grip."

She underestimates herself. Her natural allure ("You could take her picture in the dark and she'd look good," says Josh Jackson, DC's Pacey) is turning heads in Hollywood. Katie has been cast in another film, Disturbing Behavior, costarring Nick Stahl (who costarred with Mel Gibson in The Man Without a Face). but Katie is doing her best to keep everything in perspective. "Success is about getting an education and being happy," she explains. "I don't think there's any mark I can make. And if I did think that, my family would knock me over the side of my head, like 'Who do you think you are?' I'm taking each day as it comes," she says. "I'm just having fun."

Katie and the rest of the young cast all live near one another in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina. While James and Josh became roommates, Katie chose to bunk alone. "I'm not the easiest person to live with," she admits. "I'm kind of a slob. So for me to consider a roommate, it would have to be one of my sisters or something."

Katie spends her downtime phoning Ohio and watching classic '80s teen-angst flicks (Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink) with Michelle. "We've gone to the beach a couple of times," she says. "We are also trying to get to Charleston or Myrtle Beach [South Carolina] to go shopping." Picturesque as it is, Wilmington isn't the fashion Mecca of North Carolina.

Just when we are starting to appreciate Katie for her honesty, we discover that she doesn't always come clean. One night while waiting to pose for some pictures, Katie tucks her hands into her sleeves, hiding handwarmer packets. She lends me one for a minute, adding, "If it were a chocolate bar, I wouldn't have given it to you." Another secret: Though Joey rows back and forth across the creek between Dawson's home and her own waterfront shack, James tells us that Katie is no oarswoman.

"I'm glad he felt free to let you know that!" she cries. But after a minute she admits the truth. "It's rigged. They put a rope under the boat and pull it."

So Katie can't row. But she can act. If Dawson's Creek proves to be as popular as everyone predicts, Katie Holmes will be making waves for years to come.