Joshua Jackson Breaks Down Viral 'Dawson's Creek' Clip

Despite the show ending 20 years ago, Dawson's Creek fans still rewatch and analyze the series even now, and one scene, in particular, has the internet in a tizzy.

Luckily, one of the stars of the show, Joshua Jackson, who was in the scene in question, cleared up the mystery of how the shot came to be.

Jackson, who played Pacey Witter in Dawson's Creek, stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and during the interview, host Jimmy Fallon showed him the old scene going viral on Twitter.

In the scene, Pacey and Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek) play basketball while clearly agitated with each other. Apparently, Dawson decides he's had enough, and he throws the basketball right at Pacey's face.

But what really had fans worked up was how the basketball hits Pacey's face, then bounces off the camera, before bouncing away on the court.

Fans had plenty of theories about how they filmed this, debating online, but Jackson revealed the truth: it was a beach ball painted to look like a basketball.

The actor also confirmed that the basketball hit the camera when it wasn't supposed to, but the production team decided to keep it in because they liked it.

He said, "The ball hit the camera after it hit my face, and they loved it so much that they–I think we did two or three more takes, is my recollection."

Jackson joked, "Somebody had some issues they were trying to work out with me."

In the comments of the Twitter post, fans were amazed at how the scene turned out.

One fan wrote, "100% no way that was intentional. It's too good," while someone else replied, "The camera bounce happens so fast that it gives you an almost subliminal sense that you've been hit in the face FRAMES before Pacy. It's accidentally visceral."

While some thought it was a trick of editing and angles, many guessed the right answer, that the viral Dawson's Creek scene was a happy accident that they decided to keep.