ARTICLES

MEREDITH MONROE

"Meredith Monroe" YM July 99

Ever since Meredith Monroe dove into Dawson's Creek as Josh Jackson's sweetie, she's been making major waves.

by Alyssa Vitrano

Over breakfast in her New York City hotel, it's easy to see why Meredith Monroe's so good at playing Andie McPhee, the peppy, turbo-talking girlfriend of Pacey on Dawson's Creek. Barely pausing to down her scrambled eggs, Meredith sails through anecdote after anecdote about the adventures of her character, who, in just one year, has reformed bad-boy Pacey, tried to mend her manic mother, come to the defense of her gay brother, and struggled with her own mental crack-up.

Andie may have been the one who bedded down with Pacey this season, yet it was Meredith who had first-time jitters. The actress, who won't reveal her age - although guesstimates put her in her mid-20's - recalls, "I was like, We have sex? Oh my God! This will affect millions of teens. What are we doing? And then I was like, Wait, the reality is, high schools are filled with kids who are having sex. If parents out there are saying, 'My kids aren't watching this!' you know what? Your kids are probably already doing it. 14-year-olds are giving birth. How do you think that happened, immaculate conception? I don't think so."

But conception - or preventing it, to be exact - is what gets Meredith particularly passionate. With Andie-like attitude, Meredith stresses that teens who are thinking of doing the deed need to carry protection, even girls. "You can't always expect the guy to. He's gonna be like [Meredith looks into her lap], 'This is where my brain is.' It takes two seconds to put a condom on. Not using one means a couple minutes of pleasure versus living till you're 90 with some disease."

But there are emotional risks, too. Meredith says as she orders a second cup of coffee. (Can you say wired?) Though Andie and Pacey got closer after getting intimate, Meredith knows that in real life some girls have to deal with the day-after dump. "Lots of guys are like, 'I just want to get laid.' It doesn't matter if he's telling you he loves you now. What's next week gonna bring?"

Which is why Meredith digs Dawson's message that if you're going to have sex, you need to be able to communicate with your guy. "You're always so scared, like, Is he gonna think I'm stupid? Is he gonna break up with me? But you've gotta talk about the issues before, during, and after." That's one reason she loved the episode where Pacey poured his heart out in a letter: He told her how he felt, even if he couldn't do it face-to-face.

Face-to-face is exactly what Meredith gets to be with Josh Jackson, one of the tube's coolest dudes. "Having to work day in, day out with Josh - thank you, whoever!" she nearly shouts. "I feel like it's not work because we just joke around and have fun. Josh is the class clown - on the show and in real life." Josh loves to tease Meredith about her pre-Dawson's commercials and modeling gigs. One day he came into the makeup trailer saying he's been at Wal-Mart the night before. "Anybody need a crimper?" he kept asking. No one knew what he was talking about until he whipped out a hair-crimper box - with Meredith's face on it. "I think our friend Meredith here has her own crimping iron!" Josh gloated.

But as Meredith flips her bangs out of her eyes, it's clear she's not ruffled by Josh's joshing. After all, these two spend their days exchanging some of the wittiest barbs on TV. "It makes a relationship so much more fun if you can jab back and forth," she says. "With Josh and me, it was instantaneous. He was like, 'This is someone I can work with! She keeps me on my toes!" With Josh has her sparring partner, Meredith's toes don't get much of a rest, either. "Josh is one of the smartest people I've ever met," she says. "He'll be talking about a poet one minute and some country's government the next. He has the most extensive information in his brain."

Though she's tight with Josh now, Meredith was totally nervous when she paddled onto the Creek. She'd done a series before - the now canceled Dangerous Minds - but hadn't had to move to Wilmington, NC, where Dawson's is taped. "I started freaking out: What if I hate it there? What if they don't like me? What if nobody's nice? I was a mess!" When she met the cast, Meredith was thrown some first-impression curveballs. "You wouldn't expect it, but Katie's very sarcastic," Meredith says of co-star Katie Holmes. In their first convo ever, Katie asked for the 411 on Andie, and Meredith told her she didn't know how many episodes she'd be doing. Katie deadpanned that a character like that came on the show last year and was cut after her first show. "My jaw dropped and my lips were quivering," Meredith recalls. "And then she's like, 'I'm kidding!' and she gives me a big hug. I was like 'Okay, my heart just stopped!'"

First-day hazing over, Meredith now raves about her co-Creek-ers. "Katie's the sweetest person, a true friend." And she also bonds with Kerr Smith, who plays her bro, Jack. "We have the same expressions and do all this goobery stuff. People are like, 'You are related!' I don't have any brothers or sisters, so it's really nice." Wilmington's small-town lifestyle brings the cast even closer. They hang out at barbecues, the movies, and the beach. "If we were in L.A., we wouldn't see each other on days off. We've gotten to know each other so much better," Meredith says happily. "We're like a little family."

That family vibe might be why Dawson's and dating don't mix. (remember the swift severing of Josh and Katie's romantic ties?) That's fine by Meredith, though, since she's got her own honey waiting for her when shooting wraps. "Steve ignites something in me so exciting and incredible," Meredith gushes about her boyfriend. "I could just watch paint dry with him and have a blast." So, is her main man anything like Pacey? Pshaw! "Steve's really quiet. He just sits back and takes everything in," Meredith says. The couple met three years ago through mutual friends when they were both living in New York City. Recently, Steve moved into Meredith's North Carolina digs. Rumors fly that they're engaged, but Meredith won't confirm any walk-down-the-aisle plans. "We're very much in love, though," she says. "He's who I have been waiting for." When work gets Meredith stressed, Steve acts as her soothing secret weapon: He's a massage therapist. "I'll get home, and he'll have candles lit, soft music playing, and a massage table out." Mr. Magic Hands even comes on-set to give relief to cast and crew. "Michelle [Williams] got one and said it was the most incredible ten minutes she'd ever had!" Aside from his healing hands, Steve has one other quality Meredith loves. "He's my best friend," she says. "If a guy just wants some arm ornament, later he's gonna need some mental stimulation. Asserting yourself might seem hard, but it's much more exciting to have an opinion instead of just sitting there looking pretty."

Since Meredith's hip to being vocal, she enjoys mail from fans. Her fave letter was from a Dawson's devotee in New York. "It was just so honest," Meredith says. "She wrote, 'I didn't like Andie at first. I was like, What are you doing on my show? But now Andie and Pacey have the best relationship! You hooked me!'" We couldn't have said it better ourselves.