Busy Philipps and Joshua Jackson were "giving the people what they want" when they passionately kissed during the Dawson's Creek reunion

Busy told People magazine: "We had run through the whole thing the day before. And so we were just doing sound cues and lighting cues onstage the day of. That's all we had time to do.

"That was when Josh and I sat down, and I looked at him and I was like, 'I mean, we could really kiss.'

Explaining how she is used to doing live readings of scripts thanks to her The Thrilling Adventure Hour comedy stage show and podcast, she added:

"The thing is, you hold scripts, and it's very similar vibes. You don't actually kiss... when you're doing it.

"But I know from doing that show that occasionally, when there's a really big character thing where it's two characters kiss or something like that, the crowd goes nuts if you actually do it. Because they're not expecting it."

Joshua told her: "I'm in. I think we got to give the people what they want."

But despite the kiss being her idea, Joshua - who reprised his role as Pacey Witter for the reading - still managed to take his friend by surprise during the smooch.

She said: "I did not know he was going to dip me. I was like, 'Here we go, babe.' "

Despite their closeness over the years, Busy insisted her and Joshua's romance never made it beyond the screen when they were working on Dawson's Creek.

She said: "Josh is hilarious and cracks me up. And yeah, we spent a lot of time making out when we were on that show - only for the show. We never made out in real life."

Dawson's Creek stars including Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes, Mary Beth Peil, John Wesley Shipp, Mary-Margaret Humes, Nina Repeta, Kerr Smith and Meredith Monroe took part in the charity special.

However, lead star James Van Der Beek - who is battling stage 3 colorectal cancer - had to pull out of the event due to illness, with Lin-Manuel Miranda stepping in to replace him as Dawson Leery.

Instead, he made a surprise appearance with a video message, in which he said: "I have been looking forward to this night for months and months ever since my angel Michelle Williams said she was putting it together.

"I can't believe I'm not there. I can't believe I don't get to see my cast mates, my beautiful cast in person.

"And just I want to stand on that stage and thank every single person in the theatre for being here tonight. From the cast to the crew to everybody who's doing anything and has been so generous, and especially every single last one of you - you are the best fans in the world.

"Thank you for coming. It's just absolutely humbling just how much you did for this night, and I just want to say thank you. Thank you to every single person here."