Don't Trust the James Van Der Beek You See in Apartment 23

I release a line of way too tight, way tighter than God ever intended men to be wearing jeans. Yeah, I released a sex tape on the show. Uh, but my favorite episode I think I, uh, we do the one version of the body swap movie that's never been done before, father-daughter. Oh, the, oh.

What's up guys? Nicky Novak here in the Young Hollywood studio with the star of Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23, James Van Der Beek. How's it going?

It's going well.

Great to have you here.

Thank you for having me. I thought maybe after I I turned 35 and had two kids, I'd you'd punch my card in Young Hollywood. I wouldn't be allowed.

Well, you don't look a stitch over 19.

Well, thank you. Thank you. It's more of an attitude than an age.

Staying young at heart. That's what I always say. So the new show. Yeah. You have you're playing a character, but I'm sorry. I can't remember what your character's name is.

I play an actor named James Van Der Beek.

Oh, right. Right, right. Well, you're playing a version of yourself.

I'm playing a bizarro world version of myself. Yeah. You know, you know, this is our our chance to skewer actors and and just make fun of of Hollywood and and and pop culture really. In general. And we all do it, uh, with my name and and some of some of the pieces on my resume. Why do you look like Indiana Jones when he's a professor? I did it. I did it. I'm going to teach an acting class at NYU. A figure if James Franco can do it, so can I. Hate that guy ever since he beat me out for the role of Harvey Milk's lover. I hate Franco. I'm going to beat him at acting teaching.

So basically, you get to just have more fun than anybody else is having in Hollywood.

I get to have so much fun. The girls are so great in the show. I mean, they're just phenomenal and they anchor it. Yeah. And it's pretty.

You're the neighbor, basically.

They carry it. I'm I'm I'm the wacky best friend for all intents and purposes. So because they do such a good job of of holding down the fort, I get this long leash to just do whatever.

So you also get to there's some other fun things you get to you have a jeans line.

Yep. I released a line of of way too tight, way tighter than God ever intended men to be wearing jeans.

And what are they called?

Beek Jeans. Beek Jeans. Put your cheeks in a beek. Got to get yourself a pair. Yeah, I released a sex tape on the show. Uh, but my favorite episode, I think I, uh, I have to we do the one version of the body swap movie that's never been done before. Father-daughter. Oh, the, oh. And so, I have to learn how to be an 11-year-old girl.

You're going to give us a demonstration.

And so I, uh, well, I studied from Kiernan Shipka. From Mad Men. Who plays herself in the episode. So, celebrity culture and pop culture and all that stuff that's going on now. Yeah. We want to play a we're just we're just making fun of actors.

We want to play a little game with you.

Okay.

We want to ask your thoughts on some popular culture or celebrity behaviors.

Oh gosh. Okay.

Men wearing skinny jeans? Yes. Skew or a good or no?

Awesome. The tighter the better. The tighter the better. I say rock it. I say why keep tight jeans with just women. I think that's sexist. I think men should absolutely be able to wear tight jeans.

I think you're absolutely right. And the bigger the crest on the butt, the better, right? Celebrities nude cell phone picks. Either having them or texting them.

Well, how else are they going to send them? Come on.

True. Reality stars launching their own perfume line.

Um, who doesn't want to smell like a reality star?

Retouching pictures of yourself before posting them on Facebook or Twitter.

Are you saying this is just a celebrity issue?

General. Generally speaking.

I got a lot. I got a lot of non-celebrity friends who retouch their Facebook pics. Can you always tell? I can always tell. I mean, I'm guilty of doing it. I do it myself. I can't. I can't. My wife can. My wife would be like, he totally retouched that. Like, really? I don't even know. Um, so you've been doing I mean, prior to the show, it's sort of funny because you did a bunch of Funny or Die. Yeah. skits. Yeah. And kind of poking fun at yourself in a way or poking fun at the business.

It's embracing whatever was going on at the moment. Yeah. The Van Der feelings. The Van Dermemes, yeah. On Funny or Die. Yeah. So, and basically what they were, for anybody who hasn't seen it, but it was like, you expressing various emotions. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what happened was there was a there's like a four-second clip from Dawson's Creek, uh, of me crying in a rather ugly fashion. I found out that this was being used in internet chat rooms to to mock other people. If anybody's ever whining they just go, "Oh." And I thought it was hilarious and so we decided to run towards it and offer a whole variety of different. Of different emotions.

Being in the business for so long. Best advice you've ever given either to your kids or someone else or best advice you've ever received?

You know, I think the best advice I ever got was from Jon Voight. Um, who said when I was first signing autographs and it was really crazy and I didn't know what where to put it or what to do with it. And I mentioned it to him and he said, "Ah, nah. You're not going to get eager from it. You're not that kind of guy. You've got the opportunity to make somebody very happy by doing something very simple." And that's all it is. And I thought, yeah, that makes sense. And basically, in kind of the message of the show, don't ever take yourself too seriously. Totally. I love doing this and it's a lot of fun. Whatever it is, it's really, it's just it's kind of for other people. It's not for you to get off on. It's not all about yourself. Yeah. And on that note, stop taking pictures of yourselves, celebrities in the news. So So, hold on, is the camera on me? Is this Okay.