Why did former teen superstar James Van Der Beek need help to pay his medical bills?

On top of the costly treatments, Van Der Beek was not making the same cash that he’d seen in the prime of his career decades ago. He had said he was paid “almost nothing” for Dawson’s Creek and his contract didn’t include residuals – payments writers, actors and directors receive when their work is re-aired on television. Actors on other still-popular shows from that same period, like Friends, are said to make about $20m annually from such payments.