Joshua Jackson Says 'Dawson's Creek' Salary Gave Him 'Imposter Syndrome'

The actor revealed he was earning more from a few episodes of the teen drama than "most of my friends' parents made in a year"

Joshua Jackson is opening up about once grappling with his success — and paycheck — during his years on Dawson's Creek.

When the actor, 44, starred as Pacey Witter in six seasons of the teen drama, he struggled with feeling worthy of his skyrocketing position.

"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," he told The Times in a new interview on Sunday as he describing his forties as his "best decade" in life.

"That was the center of my imposter 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.'"

Related:The Stars of Dawson's Creek: Where Are They Now?

Jackson, who landed the role of Pacey at the age of 19, also revealed that he's still in touch with the core cast from the WB show and they even have a WhatsApp group.

"It doesn't get a lot of use but every once in a while someone will crop up," he continued to the British publication. "[In January] we passed the 25th anniversary [of the show] so there was a flurry of texts. It really centers around, 'Oh my God, I can't believe that we all went through that thing together.' It's obviously such a formative point in all our lives."

Related:Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson Have Mini Dawson's Creek Reunion at Oscars 2023 After Party

As well as Jackson's career, the show also launched the careers of five-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams and Katie Holmes, whom Jackson dated in real life and shared, "We were kids, so it was a full-on stars-moon-sky romance!"

According to Jackson, "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."

The Affair star, who is about to co-lead a TV adaptation of Fatal Attraction, also went on to reveal that the best advice he's receiving as an actor is to "go away."

"This business can consume you, but I've always been conscious that although I love what I do for a living, I don't like it all the time," said Jackson, who married British actress Jodie Turner-Smith in 2019. "I love this dream of building this life with my wife and seeing her achieve her goals. In my twenties it was, 'Maybe I'll feel like this when I get here.' At this point in my life I'm already here."

Related:Joshua Jackson Says Wife Jodie Turner-Smith Inspired Him to Want Marriage, Kids: 'I Was Just Not Ready'

Jackson and wife Turner-Smith, 36, are parents to a 3-year-old daughter called Janie, who Jackson has previously told PEOPLE is "very opinionated."

"The work [of being a parent] is constant because she's constantly a new version of herself," he told PEOPLE in October of first-time fatherhood. "So I think [you have to be] open to the fact that you have to rediscover your child all the time."

"But the greatest piece of it right now is she's so hyper-verbal, and she's very, very opinionated," the actor continued. "And I'm just enjoying the ability to be in that conversation with her."

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Dawson's Creek can be streamed in full on Amazon Prime Video.

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