James Van Der Beek Reflects on Coming “Nose to Nose” With Death Amid Cancer Battle
James Van Der Beek is snapping back to work.
The Dawson’s Creek alum announced that he’s joining Prime Video’s upcoming Legally Blonde prequel Elle, which follows Reese Witherspoon‘s character Elle Woods (who will be played by Lexi Minetree) in her high school years.
He’ll play recurring character Dean Wilson, the school district superintendent and the town’s new mayoral candidate.
James—who shares kids Olivia, 14, Joshua, 13, Annabel, 11, Emilia, 8, Gwendolyn, 6, Jeremiah, 2, with wife Kimberly Van Der Beek—announced the news in the wake of his his battle with stage 3 colorectal cancer.
“So, this is exciting… I’m going back to work for a bit,” the 48-year-old captioned a screenshot of an article about the news on Instagram May 15. “Super excited to join this awesome cast in such a fun project. Almost as excited as my wife and girls are that I’m doing this.”
This isn’t the first time that James has returned to work since sharing his diagnosis, which he’d received the previous August, back in November. The Varsity Blues actor appeared on The Masked Singer as the Griffin back in March, after which he provided an update on his cancer battle.
