Joshua Jackson is currently promoting Paramount+’s Fatal Attraction limited series, where he plays the lead character, Dan, the one who cheats on his wife with Alex (played by Lizzy Caplan). There were rumors about infidelity when it came to Joshua’s longest relationship, with Diane Kruger. Kruger’s supporters always swore up and down that Joshua cheated on her, and yet Kruger was the one flaunting her affair with Norman Reedus before she and Josh broke up. I bring that up because Joshua is asked about his own thoughts about infidelity, and his answer is interesting. Almost as if he’s been on different sides of it. Some highlights from his Times interview:

On Dawson’s Creek: “I think the secret to the show was that it didn’t talk to young people like they’re stupid. Those characters and what they were going through felt real. We were trying to tell stories about those moments in your life and we were close enough to it in our own ages that we deeply remembered what that angst was.”

Dawson’s changed his life. “I wasn’t poor but I also wasn’t economically stable, so being on that show for that long gave me the chance to put my sister through school and helped my mum buy a home. It changed my life.”

He loves his career these days: He says he is now in the “golden era of my career. This is when the roles as an actor are the most interesting.”

Stepping into an iconic Michael Douglas role: “The film is beloved and iconic and so burnt into our collective psyche. I was intimidated by that. Ultimately I’m curious and interested in portraying characters who are examining the frailties of being a grown-up, and particularly a grown man.”

What are his own views on cheating? “I think an affair can be forgiven. We’re all grown-ups. No one wants to be cheated on and there is massive repair to be done. Affairs aren’t about the partner, they’re about the person who has transgressed. It’s not purely about the sex. There’s a deeper violation.”

Why he felt ready to get married & become a father in his early 40s: “Partially it’s age. I’m old enough to be able to do this. Partially it’s about finding somebody in the right moment of life. If we had met five years earlier we probably would have had a torrid affair, but all the rest of this stuff, I was just not ready. I didn’t think I ever wanted to get married.”

Falling for Jodie Turner Smith: “In the beginning we did this dance with each other like, ‘Oh, this is casual.’ Except that we’d spend every moment together and find reasons to be in other cities together at the same time.” She proposed to him during a New Year’s Eve holiday in Nicaragua. “I don’t know if she planned it or if it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but out popped a proposal I was not expecting and the organic and instinctive answer was yes. Six months later she was pregnant and we were on our way. And now we have this beautiful baby who is literally the manifestation of that love. It is impossible for me to look into the face of my child without feeling love for my wife.” Indeed, Jackson is besotted with fatherhood. “It has changed me in every single possible way,” he says.

He’s embracing middle age. “Being in my forties is far and away the best decade. I wouldn’t want to go back to my twenties again, that amount of angst. I would make more money doing four episodes of Dawson’s Creek than most of my friends’ parents made in a year. That was the centre of my impostor syndrome: ‘You’re trying to set me up to be a role model to kids, and I definitely am not, and you’re paying me all this money that I don’t deserve.’ ”

[From The Times]

Maybe he’s a real prick in real life, but I came away from this piece just liking him so much and admiring the man he’s become. He’s always been one of my favorites though – I like his answers about finally feeling ready and meeting the right person, how fatherhood has changed him and how much he adores Jodie. As for what he says about affairs…”I think an affair can be forgiven. We’re all grown-ups. No one wants to be cheated on and there is massive repair to be done.” Yeah, I kind of agree? For some people, it will be a dealbreaker, for others, they’ll try to repair their relationship. It sounds like he’s cheated and been cheated on.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.