Selma Blair lost out on Dawson's Creek role to Katie Holmes

Actress Selma Blair's hopes of landing a lead role in hit show Dawson's Creek were crushed after producers received Katie Holmes' last minute audition tape.

Creator Kevin Williamson reveals Blair had been the favourite to tackle the part of tomboy Joey Potter in the 1990s teen drama, until they set sight on Katie's try-out, which had been filmed from her family home.

"I really loved Selma until, of course, I got the infamous videotape from the basement of the Holmes family in Toledo, Ohio," he tells Entertainment Weekly. "And when that video showed up, it changed my whole life."

Williamson made the comments as Holmes reunited with her co-stars Michelle Williams, Joshua Jackson, and James Van Der Beek, among others, to mark the 20th anniversary of the show's launch for an Entertainment Weekly cover shoot.

It wasn't the only casting revelation the TV boss shared in the accompanying interview - according to Williamson, pilot director Steve Miner had brought Katherine Heigl in to audition for Michelle's character Jen Lindley, and although it went well, they didn't think she was quite the right fit.

"She looked slightly older, I think, at that time, or something," Kevin recalled. "Even though she was younger, I just think she was more mature."

Katherine, who is actually almost two years older than Michelle, ended up making a name for herself in sci-fi series Roswell, which debuted more than a year after Dawson's Creek premiered in 1998. It ran until 2003.