James Van Der Beek Trusts the Bitch in Apt. 23

Starting out as "Don't Trust the Bitch in Apt. 23" and then being regulated to simply "Apt. 23," ABC's new comedy – finally titled Don't Trust the B--- in Apartment 23 – stars Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad, Veronica Mars), Dreama Walker and Dawson's Creek's James Van Der Beek...as a heightened version of himself.

At the Television Critics Association Press Tour this morning, the cast and creators of this new series, which will premiere on April 11th, sat for a Q&A; session to talk about what it's like to have a network show with, well, a total bitch for a main character. Ritter plays the "B" in question here; a young woman named Chloe who thrives off of doing horrible things to her unsuspecting roommates, driving them out of the apartment. Walker plays June, Chloe's new roomie, and the first "nice girl" to ever stand up to Chloe, which sort of gains Chloe's respect. Van Der Beek pulls a "Matt LeBlanc on Episodes" here, by playing an absurd version of himself as Chloe's shallow neighbor and platonic BFF.

"If Holly Golightly and Satan had a child, it would be my character," Ritter laughed. Likewise, the producers of the show described the character of Chloe as being the "love child of Lucille Ball and Sid Viscious" and then praised Ritter for being able to pull off a character who is able to do such horrible things and yet still remain likeable. "I think that Chloe gets to say things that everyone wishes they could say," Ritter explained. "It's absolute candy. It's fun when you get to play someone so bold and badass and unapologetic. It's the most fun I've ever had in my life." Walker herself then offered up her take on the character of June, a young woman who moves to New York to take a big, corporate job only to find out that she's been laid off almost immediately after settling in. "June's a smart chick," Walker said. "She's a smart girl. She knows how to work it. Sometimes she tries to be a little bit of a badass and it doesn't fare so well. She kind of outsmarts Chloe a little bit and that's what makes Chloe respect her and like her."

Of course Ritter herself gets to steal most of the scenes on the show due to her character's outrageous behavior (i.e. walking around stark naked, sleeping with her roommates fiance on top of said roommate's own birthday cake) but everyone needs a partner in crime and that's where James Van Der Beek AS James Van Der Beek comes in. "I auditioned against six other 'James Van Der Beeks' for this role," the former teen heartthrob joked. "This is probably the most fun I've ever had doing anything. I did it to have a lot of laughs and be a part of something I can be really really proud of. It was far and above the funniest script I'd read this pilot season. Or any pilot season. And, say, when you tell a joke at a party you always get more laughs when it's a self-deprecating joke than if it's a self-grandiose one."

"We kind of found [the meta-character] as we were doing it too," Van Der Beek said. "He's really sweet but he's completely narcissistic. He's got so many blind spots and it was really fun to exploit those blind spots and just go as far as we possibly could into the realm of ridiculousness. But also still keep it in the real world." Van Der Beek then clarified that, naturally, the show isn't about his character. "I really am just part of the ensemble. The show is not based on me, it's based on the two girls and their relationship and their dynamic."

And yes, there are Dawson's Creek jokes, but maybe not as many as you might think. Van Der Beek told the critics in attendance that by the third episode they'd sort of moved on from the Dawson thing, and the fact that the character of June is a giant Dawson fan, and got "into a lot of other pop culture things that we skewer." Creator Nahnatchka Khan said of the role "I always think it's fun when you can take someone in real life and turn them into a character. Because there's such a blurring of the line now anyways. With Twitter and social media. People always wonder what's real and what isn't."

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Don't Trust the B--- in Apartment 23 will premiere on April 11th, at 9:30pm on ABC.

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