Katie Holmes covers the latest issue of Glamour. She’s promoting Rare Objects, a film in which she stars and directed. It’s adapted from a 2016 Kathleen Tessaro novel. She’s wanted to direct for a while, and you can tell that she’s very proud of her efforts and being able to put this project together. She spends a good chunk of this interview talking about her fashion and why she wears weird stuff (because she wants to) and what it’s like to rewatch Dawson’s Creek. Some highlights:

On Dawson’s Creek: “I was just 18 when we started, and I really appreciated the writing because I felt like, as a teenager, I had so many different feelings, trying to go from being a girl to a woman. And I felt like [creator Kevin Williamson] had this way of putting words to those feelings. So for me, playing that role, I was like, “Oh, that’s what that means. Oh, I get that.” I loved doing it. It was a really fun, profound experience.

She’s rewatched the Creek & whether she thinks the show holds up: “In some ways, yes. Some ways, no. We had our big episode where Jack comes out and I’m so glad we had that episode, and I’m so sad that that is what was happening for people. And I’m so glad that it’s not happening, hopefully, to that extent in today’s world. But I think it [was also] just this combination of Wilmington, North Carolina—so beautiful. There was that sense of innocence. Kevin wrote the simplicity of teen emotions really well.

On social media: “In my life now, I don’t go on social media that much. I don’t scroll that much because I don’t want all that information. And maybe because I did come up where there was a time and place for things, even with our show—it started airing on Tuesday nights and you had to wait a week. So you got to think about that one episode. The work was limited to that. We also were protected. We were in North Carolina, we were working 14 hours a day, and we were really contained and not really distracted by the outside world, which was to our benefit and to the benefit of the show, so we could do what we had to do.

She didn’t want to play the sexy young thing: “I didn’t want to be the sexy young thing. I am not sexy. I used to have a friend of mine come to all my photo shoots to make sure that they didn’t try to make me that way.

Whether there was a role she wanted but didn’t get: “The [2002] movie 40 Days and 40 Nights. Originally, there was a read-through, and it was going to be me and Ashton Kutcher and [American Pie star and Holmes’s The Wanderers costar] Eddie Kaye Thomas. And I didn’t know this, Eddie just told me, but he had gotten into a fender bender on the way to the table read and the reading just didn’t go well. There were executives and all that, and you could just feel it. I remember leaving going, Oh, my God, what just happened? It wasn’t meant to be. They ended up making it with another cast.

Why people are fascinated with her fashion: “I really don’t know. I enjoy [fashion]. I mean, I enjoy the craftsmanship. I enjoy putting things together. And I work with [stylist] Brie Welch, and she’s very detail oriented, and that inspires me. I think it is very creative. I love vintage shopping. I love the art of design.

Seeing her daughter embrace ‘90s style: “I think the ’90s style is exactly back. Makes me feel old. We lived through that already! My mom says she should have saved things. I should have saved things.

[From Glamour]

I’m actually glad we didn’t try to save things from the 1990s because what we wore then wouldn’t have held up physically for the most part. I mean, vintage everything was in style, your clothes were supposed to be cheap and threadbare, hopefully ripped. You never wore new jeans. The ideal outfit involved combat boots, ripped jeans and cheap flannel. But yeah, it’s funny to watch the youths try to reinvent that. The one thing I’ll say is that jeans were so much better in the ‘90s. I’ve never really thought about it this way, but I guess Katie Holmes is sort of a ‘90s fashion icon, in that she’s trying to navigate all of the weird fashion trends with her ‘90s eye even today. As for all the talk about Dawson’s Creek – I agree that the show captured something special about teen life in that era, but I also agree that parts of the show really don’t hold up.

Cover courtesy of Glamour, additional photos courtesy of Backgrid & Avalon Red.