From “Fringe” to cringe.
Joshua Jackson, whose dad abandoned him and his family when he was a child, had an awkward reply to a reporter who asked him the “best piece of advice” his dad ever gave him.
“Dawson’s Creek” actor reacted to the question by bursting into laughter before saying, “My father abandoned my family.”
“You know what?” he continued, getting more serious. “The best piece of advice my father accidentally gave me in his absence is to be a good and present father.”
Joshua Jackson, whose father abandoned him and his family when he was a child, was awkwardly asked about his dad’s best advice during a recent interview. GC Images
Jackson was asked the question by interviewer Isaac Hindin-Miller at the premiere of “Brunello: The Gracious Visionary” Tuesday in New York City. Instagram/@isaaclikes
The internet was split in the comments between shock that Jackson, 47, was asked that question and their admiration for his heartfelt answer.
“[A]re you out of your mind asking [J]oshua such a question….,” one person wrote of interviewer Isaac Hindin-Miller. Another chimed in, “Damn Joshua 😢😢 but I love what he said in the end! 🙌.”
The moment was featured in Hindin-Miller’s roundup from the premiere of “Brunello: The Gracious Visionary” at New York City’s Lincoln Center on Tuesday. It also featured celebrities like Martha Stewart, Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Seacrest responding to the same prompt.
Elsewhere at the documentary premiere, Jackson reunited with his “Dawson’s Creek” co-star Katie Holmes.
Jackson also reunited with his former “Dawson’s Creek” co-star Katie Holmes at the event, as pictured here. Roger Wong/INSTARimages
Jackson, seen here in 1999, has been open about his absentee father throughout the years in various interviews. WireImage
The former castmates — who also briefly dated in real life in the late ’90s — posed together on the red carpet, laughing together and flashing big smiles at each other as they locked arms.
In a 1998 interview with the Seattle Times, Jackson reflected on his parents’ divorce as being a “very traumatic experience” for him.
“It was just me, my sister, and my mother, and we went it alone,” he said at the time. “I went from being a very well-off little kid to having a couple rough years, to rebuilding – my mother did that. She and I are very close.”
The actor grew up with his mother, seen here. Bruce Glikas/WireImage
In the late ’90s he called his parents’ divorce a “very traumatic experience” for him but, just last year, expressed “sympathy” for his deceased father. (Jackson pictured here in “The Skulls”) Getty Images
Just last year, during an interview on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s “Dinner’s On Me” podcast, Jackson opened up about feeling “sympathy” for his father after his death now that he is a “grown man with a child” himself.
“My father, who I never became close with, also passed away. And I find myself, for the first time, with a great deal of sympathy for him, because the pain that he must have lived with to have four children in the world and essentially no relationship with any of them…,” the actor said.
“If I ever did anything to estrange my daughter from myself, I would be bereft,” he added.
Jackson is now a father himself, having welcomed daughter Juno with ex-wife Jodie Turner-Smith in April 2020. (Jackson pictured at an event in April 2026). BFA.com / BACKGRID
Turner-Smith, who married Jackson in August 2019, filed for divorce in October 2023 after four years of marriage and the two have battled over custody of Juno over the years. (The couple seen at the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party.) FilmMagic
Jackson shares daughter Juno, 6, with ex-wife Jodie Turner-Smith, whom he married in August 2019.
Turner-Smith filed for divorce from the “Cruel Intentions” star in October 2023 after four years of marriage.
The former couple were set to battle it out in front of a judge over custody of Juno last October but ultimately agreed to settle their differences outside the courtroom.