James Van Der Beek, who is best-known for playing Dawson Leery on "Dawson's Creek," showed up for an unforgettable two-episode arc on "Criminal Minds" in 2007. The episodes were titled "Revelations" and "The Big Game," and were centered around the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) tracking down the eerie serial killer played by Van Der Beek. The "Don't Trust The B in Apartment 23" star had a lot on his plate as he took on the role of three characters.
Originally, the BAU thought Van Der Beek's Tobias Hankel was an eyewitness to a murder, but he turned out to be much more, per TV Insider. Tobias had Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and as a result had multiple personalities — one of which was his own abusive, religious fanatic father Charles (the other was Archangel Raphael). "What I always forget when I play characters that are really dark and evil is that there's a lot of pain underneath that," Van Der Beek told TV Insider in 2020 while reflecting on his role. Tobias was at the mercy of Charles, who made him commit the heinous acts in the name of religion. Van Der Beek developed empathy for Tobias, and conveyed that in the role. "The reason multiple personalities form is it's a coping mechanism," the actor said. "It's almost always as a result of relentless abuse."
Keep reading to find out why Van Der Beek was initially nervous to take the part.
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