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Thanks to his scene-stealing role on The B---- in Apartment 23, James Van Der Beek is white hot in Hollywood once again, and back on the big screen in a pair of new films.

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Next year he will star in director Jason Reitman's Labor Day alongside Kate Winslet, Tobey Maguire and Josh Brolin. But first, fans can see him in Backwards, an inspirational new drama opening September 21 in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Los Angeles.

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Written by and starring Sarah Megan Thomas, Backwards tells the story of a fiercely competitive rower who becomes a coach after failing to make the Olympic team for the second time. Van Der Beek plays Geoff, a fellow coach, and in this ETonline exclusive behind the scenes clip, he talks about the reasons why this character was impossible to ignore.