Kerr Smith opened up about his groundbreaking kiss between him and actor Adam Kaufman on Dawson’s Creek in a new interview.
Jack’s (Smith) smooch with Ethan (Kaufman) was the first same sex kiss on US television in 2000. It happened during the third season of the classic WB series.
“We were the first ones to do that,” Smith, 47, told TooFab on Wednesday, October 16. “It was a crazy experience back then and you’re right, look at every single show now, it’s pretty amazing.”
He first found out about the kiss when screenwriter Kevin Williamson took him aside and said they wanted to take Jack “down a different avenue.”
“Obviously, he always had the intention of making one of his characters gay, he was still in the closet at that point too and every character in Dawson’s Creek is an extension of Kevin Williamson,” he said.
Jack’s storyline largely revolved around Greg Berlanti, the series’ openly gay executive producer. “I remember calling up everybody I respected and said, ‘Hey, should I do this?’ Doing the first male-male kiss, I remember it was intense. I’m glad we did it and it was part of history.”
The same sex kiss on Dawson’s Creek allowed other series to do the same in the years to come. All My Children produced its first lesbian kiss on daytime television on April 22, 2003 between the characters of Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel) and Lena Kundera (Olga Sosnovska). Bianca was the daughter of Erica Kane played by Emmy winner Susan Lucci.
Will (Eric McCormack) and Jack (Sean Hayes) also shared a smooch during a fake Today show segment on Will & Grace in 1999.
Dawson’s Creek debuted on the WB in 1998 and lasted for six seasons. The show was nominated for Outstanding Television Drama Series at the GLAAD Media Awards in 1999 and 2000.
Umm… the first gay kiss actually happened a lot earlier.
It was on Roseanne where they had the first lesbian kiss.