"One Tree Hill" came at what I would describe as a "quiet time" in my career. I got an offer to go back to Wilmington, North Carolina where we had shot "Dawson's Creek" and at first I was like "eh, I don't want to back" but then I said, "I want to back, it'll be a lot of fun."

So I did and shot 4 episodes of "One Tree Hill".

http://ew.com/tv/2017/08/07/james-van-der-beek-looks-back/