Ken Marino says it’s his fault that his Dawson’s Creek relationship with Joey didn’t last longer

Perhaps Joey Potter’s relationship with her college professor on Dawson’s Creek would’ve lasted longer, but Ken Marino got another gig.

Marino played Worthington University Professor David Wilder in season 5, though he ended up breaking off his romantic entanglement with Joey (Katie Holmes) after realizing he couldn’t have an affair with a student. The Fresh Off the Boat and Ghosted actor now tells PeopleTV’s Couching Surfing that the real reason he left was because he had another job lined up.

“We broke up here because I booked another show,” Marino said, while rewatching a clip of her character. “I was gonna be on the whole season and then I booked I think it was called First Years, it was a series on NBC.”

Holmes, James Van Der Beek, and Joshua Jackson got back together with some of their Dawson’s Creek buddies like Michelle Williams, Kerr Smith, and Busy Philipps for a special EW reunion cover. Marino gave us his own mini walk down memory lane when he reminisced about his audition for the show.

“I auditioned for this show and there was a lot of flowery language at my audition,” he said. “I don’t remember anything; there’s not a lot going on in my brain at this point…My first line was this big, long paragraph and I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I can’t remember this thing or even say it right.'”

Marino ended up reciting the paragraph over and over until he got it down. He even showed host Lola Ogunnaike that he still knows his stuff.

Check out the clip above for more on Marino’s time at Dawson’s Creek.