Depending on what television shows or movies students watch,
their expectations of college life probably fluctuate
schizophrenically between keg stands seven nights a week and late
nights at the library until the sun rises each morning.
Despite what most viewers would like to believe, however, the
young actors themselves who portray these high school and
college-age characters often have little in common with their
on-screen counterparts. Just ask Katie Holmes, star of the new
psychological thriller, “Abandon.”
In the film, Holmes portrays a graduate student completing her
last semester at a prestigious Ivy League school. Stressed out by
finals and finishing her thesis on time, Holmes’ character
nearly reaches mental overload as she realizes that soon
she’ll need to look for a career upon graduating. That is, if
she manages to pass all of her exams. To take her mind off it all,
her friends coax her into partying rather than focusing too much on
her studies.
Sound like a regular semester at school? To Holmes, it certainly
wasn’t.
While Holmes has long been a fixture on television as the
wide-eyed, girl-next-door,
“I-want-her-as-my-girlfriend” hottie on
“Dawson’s Creek,” she is also the first to say
that she has never been to college, perhaps a startling revelation
to many of her fans considering that she plays a college girl on TV
as well as in several of her films.
“It’s weird. It was a very strange transition on
Dawson’s Creek to go from them being high school students,
which I could relate to, to college, which I don’t
know,” Holmes said.
On TV, Holmes portrays a studious girl who strives to be the
best in her classes, hoping to make it on her own while also trying
to balance out the drama that constantly surrounds her
relationships between her character’s friends on
“Dawson’s.”
In reality, however, Holmes’ life was slightly less
tempestuous.
“I went to school in an all girl’s academy, and it
was just a different experience than the one portrayed on the
show,” Holmes said. “I stressed, as we all did in my
high school, but I wasn’t the girl that was like “˜I
have to be the best.’ I recognized that there were smarter
girls that took more time and I knew how to get the A, like I knew
the least amount of work possible to get that A. I didn’t
have to get the 99, just the 90.”
Not having been to college, it would seem Holmes might have
missed out on many of the social experiences that would aid her in
her roles on screen; however, as fans of hers might have guessed,
she was even more social and outgoing in high school than her roles
on TV and film would suggest. Like many high school students, her
fun was only limited by her parents who expected her to be home by
a reasonable time.
“I was kind of shy at parties because I had an early
curfew. It was kind of like, “˜Oh hey the party’s
starting, I’ve gotta go,'” said Holmes.
“But I had fun in high school. I went to the movies, to
football games, and to all the dances, but I wasn’t the one
that was bringing the kegs of beer, or else I wouldn’t be
here today. I’d probably be locked in the basement still or
my parents would do something to me.”