James Van Der Beek explains why he and his family left Los Angeles for Texas: 'We wanted to get the kids out'

James Van Der Beek emphasized "space" and "nature" as reasons for moving his family from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas. The actor and his wife Kimberly share five kids together.

"We wanted to get the kids out of Los Angeles," James told Austin Life magazine in a new interview. "We wanted to give them space and we wanted them to live in nature." "When we were flying here for our anniversary, I felt an energy to Austin," he added. "The energy was the same energy that I'd felt shooting ‘Varsity Blues’ here when I was 21, and I realized that feeling wasn't just where I was in my career or the movie I was shooting, all of which were very exciting, but that the energy is the place. It was really cool to realize, ‘Oh, I can go be there. We can drop in and bring our family to that.’"