James Van Der Beek‘s Varsity Blues is a ’90s classic, but it turns out the movie didn’t quite get the same reaction from his kids, including son Joshua, 8, and daughter Annabel, 6. The Dawson’s Creek star showed parts of the college football drama to them, and documented their hilarious reactions via his Instagram story on Tuesday, May 5! “My kids wanted to see some of ‘The Blue Movie’ that people are always talking to me about…” James captioned the first video, as a confused Joshua asked, “That’s you?” While we don’t think the 43-year-old has aged a day since the 1999 film, his 8-year-old son obviously thought differently!
It turns out, Joshua — who is James’ second eldest child with wife Kimberly Brook — specifically took issue with his dad’s Texas accent in the film. “I hate that accent,” the future film critic grumbled in a low voice. “That one is the worst. The other ones, perfecto,” Joshua, clad in a red-and-black pair of pajamas, added after mocking the accent himself. The shade! “He doesn’t like my accent,” James added, as 6-year-old daughter Annabel offered some commentary of her own. “You do a good ‘Boris’ accent from Vampirina, it’s like you’re actually the character. Not possible though,” she quipped, referencing James’ animated Disney series which ran from 2017 to 2019.
“Truthfully…I didn’t feel comfortable with the accent until halfway through shooting,” the Connecticut native wrote over the video. “Thank you. You get good at some things as you get older. This was before I really knew how do I do an accent,” James added, responding to his 6-year-old, who appeared to be on the edge of her seat during an action-packed football play.
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Joshua wasn’t done with his real-time review of the film — which also starred Angelina Jolie‘s dad Jon Voight as James’ tough-as-nails coach — particularly when it came to inappropriate language. “You say s— in this movie. You said s— in this movie, you said holy s—!” Joshua said in another video. “Don’t say that in real life,” James hilariously responded, writing “I thought I was showing them the two minutes that appropriate to show them.”
The gorgeous Amy Smart, 44, memorably played James’ on-screen girlfriend in the throwback flick, but Joshua didn’t appear impressed with her either. “That girl is playing my girlfriend in the movie,” James explained as Joshua had a look of disgust on his face. “We love you @smarthouse26…he just thinks all girls are yucky right now,” James sweetly wrote over the video.
In a recent interview, James even dished about his kids — also including his oldest, Olivia, 9, Emilia, 4, and Gwendolyn, who turns 2 next month — wanting to watch his past work! “My kids will dig up the most weirdest most random stuff that I have done and watch it,” he revealed in an EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife on Nov. 4. “It is really funny what they like and what they won’t respond to… They love [Disney series] Vampirina, there was a Hallmark Christmas movie that I did a long time ago in a career lull and my kids love it! It’s hilarious, it is not at all what I thought but.. I would have never showed them but they love it,” he laughed.