James Van Der Beek Once Went Undercover As A Car Salesman (But People Figured It Out)

With the death of 48-year-old entertainment icon James Van Der Beek on February 11, 2026, the pop culture world has started looking back through his body of work to honor his memory. While high-profile projects like "Dawson's Creek" and "Texas Rangers" stand as some of his most well-known and celebrated works, some of his other acting efforts have flown under the radar. For instance, many might not know that Van Der Beek once went undercover as a car salesman way back in 2016 for the reality series "Stars Selling Cars."

As the name suggests, Autoblog's "Stars Selling Cars" was a YouTube show where well-known celebrities went undercover at a car lot. They tried to pass themselves off as normal salespeople without customers realizing who they were truly dealing with. Van Der Beek was the first star to give this a whirl in the series' premiere episode. Try as he did to pass himself off as a regular car salesman — khakis, mustache, and all — multiple customers caught on and recognized him. Hopefully, these car buyers were as good at identifying credible car dealers as they were at spotting disguised actors on car lots.

This wasn't the only time Van Der Beek worked around cars in his career. His appearance on "Stars Selling Cars" came a few years after appearing in a widely-seen, nostalgic car commercial.

A few years before his appearance on the debut episode of "Stars Selling Cars," James Van Der Beek appeared in a 2013 advertisement for the car-buying and selling platform Cars.com that played on Van Der Beek's history in emotional and dramatic roles. The ad featured him delivering lines from one of his most popular films, 1999's "Varsity Blues," as a way to add the sort of drama customers might expect when buying a car, in contrast to the supposed drama-free experience of buying via Cars.com.

Cars.com didn't stop there, of course. The platform took things beyond TV with its #VanDerDrama social media campaign, encouraging folks on Twitter (as it was known then) to join in and discuss the ad. On top of this engagement, there were also Van Der Beek-themed contests for folks to enter. All in all, this may not be one of the absolute wildest car commercials of all time, but for fans of Van Der Beek and "Varsity Blues," it's a fun, nostalgic watch all the same.

Whether bringing the titular Dawson to life on "Dawson's Creek," delivering his "Varsity Blues" lines in a car commercial, or trying to sell cars incognito on "Stars Selling Cars," James Van Der Beek consistently gave his all in front of the camera. He will be sorely missed.