James Van Der Beek is getting candid about working amid his cancer journey.
The Dawson’s Creek star shared how working on Legally Blonde prequel series Elle has helped him to find peace as he battles stage 3 colorectal cancer.
“The greatest thing about work is cancer doesn’t exist between action and cut,” James told Today in an interview published July 30. “It was fun to drop in and just have a blast because it’s such a great cast, a great production, and everybody out there is really talented.”
That’s why being on-set doesn’t feel like work for the 48-year-old. Instead, James considers living with cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 2023 and publicly announced in 2024, his “full time job,” as he’s had to work to “take things a little bit more slowly and prioritizing rest and really allowing that to be the job.”
And this mindset shift is one that the Varsity Blues alum—who shares kids Olivia, 14, Joshua, 13, Annabel, 11, Emilia, 9, Gwendolyn, 7, and Jeremiah, 3 with wife Kimberly—believes he will have to carry with him for the rest of his life.
“I’m just on the journey,” he shared. “It’s a process. It’ll probably be a process for the rest of my life.”
