The actress, who played Jen Lindley in the drama, admitted she felt restricted by her role but simply got on with it while she planned her next move.
'I said to a friend [that] being on Dawson's Creek was kind of like being a mobster. You set up a shop selling pizza but in the back you're laundering money,' she told PopEater.
'You're doing one thing in plain sight and secretly plotting something else. I was plotting my tastes, my interests, my beliefs and hopes for what I could be.'
She added that she had to work hard to shed her blonde, girly image in order to get the roles that she wanted rather than simply rake in the cash.
'It was never an option to me to make a lot of money or do work I couldn't get behind. That's not my nature. What is hard is living up to your own expectations. Yes, it was hard getting jobs I wanted,' she said.
'I was a pop tart. It took patience and baby steps. I did a play in New York that wasn't about being blonde, which led to a role in an HBO thing to a role in a British drama. As F. Scott Fitzgerald said, 'Gradually, then suddenly'.'