Joshua Jackson & Chloe Fineman on Bad Breakups, 'SNL' Impressions and the Magic of 'Dawson’s Creek'

Getting ghosted, for lack of better word, sucks. The communication dries up and you’re left to wonder what happened, stuck in an endless loop of re-reading old messages, analyzing minute details, and calling your friends more times than is probably social appropriate. Or, if you’re Paula, the star of Excessive, a dark romantic comedy which premiered on Audible this Thursday, you send your ghoster 50,000+ text messages and wind up in jail.

Intrigued? Confused? Suddenly feeling a whole lot better about your last romantic dalliance? Excessive‘s wonderfully twisted tale takes listeners on a ride through the ill-fated journey of Paula (Chloe Fineman) who falls for Victor (Joshua Jackson) after matching on a dating app, only for it all to fall apart spectacularly over the course of twenty-four hours.

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SheKnows spoke to Jackson and Fineman about the weird, dark sides of dating, that Jamie Lee Curtis impression, and the true joys of Dawson’s Creek.

SheKnows: This story is such a wild, fun ride. What were your initial impressions when you first read the script?

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Joshua Jackson: Well, my first impression was just that, that I don’t generally get given the opportunity to play over-the-top characters. It’s a great read, it’s like a page turner of a read, even though nobody’s going to be reading it. The format of audio, plus the way that it’s written, gave me an opportunity to really throw it all at the wall, which was fun.

Chloe Fineman: For me, I was part of the development of it. Five years ago, there was this viral woman who sent 65,000 texts and I really identified with her story, even though she wound up in jail. She was our muse.

SK: That’s so interesting because Paula, for all of her foibles, breaks your heart in the first line of the story, when she talks about always being “too much.” In what ways did you relate to Paula?

CF: I mean, I’m definitely too much. Wait til I get your number and start texting you. Story of my life. I think that “too much” is also kind of misunderstood. And definitely I think [with] dating, you’re always doing too much or too little, and everyone goes a little insane.

SK: If you could give Paula advice right after Victor ghosted her and before she sends the 50,000 text messages, what would you tell her?

CF: Don’t talk to a psychic. I’ve definitely gone to psychics for men and it always leads you down a really weird rabbit hole of coo-coo-ness.

JJ: Can I interview for a second here? You’ve gone to psychics for men?

CF: Yes, twice. I had a really hard time getting over [my ex-boyfriend] and then I saw this psychic in downtown LA and the first session was $25 and I had to bring her his sweatshirt and, like, take a bath with a stone and then the next time, it was like $50. And then the third time she wanted $900. That’s when I said okay, that’s [too] much.

JJ: You’re like, wait a minute, I think I’m on to this now…

SK: What did the $900 buy you? Do you remember?

CF: Oh, a full spiritual cleansing. Yeah.

SK: What did you both find to be the biggest joys and the biggest challenges when it comes to audio performances?

JJ: The biggest difficulty is…we didn’t actually get to do this together. [That] was my one nervousness because I read it as being an over-the-top character and was just standing by myself in a booth having a grand old time. It did dawn on me like, “What if everybody else is playing this straight? I’m gonna really, really stick out here.” That’s the biggest nervousness. But there’s so much freedom and latitude in just standing in a booth talking to the producer and the director…it was very liberating.

CF: I totally agree. I think the challenge was like, in funny stuff, it’s so much about your timing with another person, it’s like a ping pong game. You just hope that it all turns out, and I believe it did.

SK: I actually didn’t realize the two of you weren’t in the same room together while you were recording this! What is the secret sauce to creating chemistry with a fellow actor? Even when that person is not there?

JJ: Oh, I’ve definitely worked with some people who are not there even when they were…

SK: Do you have a method for creating chemistry when it’s not there with someone? How do you drum it up?

JJ: No, I don’t think you can fake that, actually. There’s not like a, “Oh, this isn’t working. Let’s try…” Sometimes it just doesn’t mesh. And that’s really a bummer.

SK: Chloe, I have to give you a big shout out for your Jamie Lee Curtis impression on Saturday Night Live recently. What’s the secret to playing Jamie?

CF: I just love her. I love everything about her……she really articulates words. This award season, she’s been so funny and she calls herself a weapon of mass promotion. I think the secret is if you love somebody, it’s a lot easier to do the impression. She’s just the best.

SK: Josh, I just finished writing a book on Dawson’s Creek and one of the guest stars told me that he studied you so intently, because of how you delivered that really dense, lyrical dialogue. You went through a six year journey of performing Dawson’s Creek-specific language and I was curious how that shaped you as an actor?

JJ: I will say I’ve spent the rest of my career trying to find dialogue at that caliber…I really enjoy dialogue heavy things. I think there’s space for quiet and brooding, but I’m a talker and I enjoy playing talkers so I apologize to whoever that young actor was, who studied me intently. I hope that went okay for the rest of their career.

I actually don’t think it was all that dense. It was just fast…looking back, I think what Dawson’s got so right was writing at the level or elevated from where you were. I remember being a teenager and being constantly insulted by young people’s programming. Who did they think we are? And instead, [the show’s creator Kevin Williamson] was trying to meet us at a higher place, and and pushing the audience. I never found anybody who was like, “I don’t get it. I missed it.” It was just text heavy and it was really fast-paced.

SK: I mean, it taught me a lot of vocabulary words. I would never have known the word “proverbial” growing up if it was not for Dawson’s Creek.

JJ: Yeah, we hit that one a lot.

Before you go, click here to see our favorite movies and TV shows about imperfect, complicated women. 

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