James Van Der Beek is the new Diplo
It turns out that James Van Der Beek is funny. Defined for years by his title role as the earnest Everyboy in the teen drama “Dawson’s Creek,” Van Der Beek, 40, managed a sly reinvention this decade by playing an exaggerated version of himself on the ABC sitcom “Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23.” Experimenting in “that meta space,” as he calls it, prepared Van Der Beek for his unlikely — and delightfully niche
— role as the underground
DJturnedpop macher
Diplo in
Viceland’s first scripted series,
“What
Would
Diplo Do?”, a satirical look at the life of an irrationally confident electronic dance music star.
“In our loftiest ambitions, we were somewhere between ‘Louie’ and ‘Spinal Tap,’ ” said Van Der Beek, who is also writing, producing and serving as showrunner for the comedy, which begins Thursday. (Diplo is an executive producer.) Initially conceived last year as an online short, the gag grew in scope at the behest of Nick Weidenfeld, Viceland’s president of programming, who raised the possibility of a full series.
“Being around him was the biggest thing,” he said about portraying the music star. “An impression is more about energy than anything else. His Major Lazer show on Beats 1, I listened to that every week just because I love the music. It’s funny — as I start talking about him, I start talking like him.”