Danielle Harris Meets World

She may have only appeared on one episode of Boy Meets World, but she certainly made the most of it! As TK, the hard-nosed and precocious sister of Harley Kiner, Danielle Harris stood out in Season 2 as an absolute scene stealer, so the gang had to talk to her.
We learn about how she went from fighting Michael Myers to enrolling at John Adams High School, why she thinks Ben was afraid of her and how the darker side of childhood fame derailed her career, and finances. Plus…over 20 pilots!?!?!
We may never get the spin-off we wanted, but at least we have this episode!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Do you guys remember the thumb ring I used to wear.
I had a Yin yang thumb ring.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Familiar.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, I wore it't for like years, and then I
was a little superstitious about it, even though I wasn't
like a superstitious type of person. And then I guess
I just decided I no longer cared about it at
all and ripped it off and have never thought about
it again. I have no idea what happened to her,
and that's it.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
And then we had this spin.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
I had spinny rings. Anybody else like you'd fidget with them?
That was like the original fidget spinner.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Have a little sent.

Speaker 5 (00:46):
That makes sense because I would totally do that because
I always if I had a ring, I'd taken it.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I had a big I was. I was big into
mood rings. I had a ring for years. While what
do you say about me? I was just mopey back then.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
I guess it wasn't just that back then.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
So yesterday, you know, as everybody knows, we're we've got
some live shows coming up and some stuff to do.
So we have somebody that comes and helps us. Well,
I have somebody that comes and helps me dress myself.
That we met from Danielle and we were all we
also and we're seeing what they look like. And she
held up a picture of what's Rider's wearing and she
looked at me and she.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Said, why doesn't he smile?

Speaker 6 (01:23):
And it's a picture of Rider dress just really nicely
with this face.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
On, Like, I can't believe I have to wear clothes.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I don't smile for pictures? Is that crazy?

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Like?

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Uh, do you not like I smile life?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Don't I just smiling?

Speaker 7 (01:37):
You laugh?

Speaker 3 (01:37):
You're easy to laugh.

Speaker 5 (01:38):
And but but I think, yeah, I think at some
point I learned to just not make any expression. But yeah,
and our and our promotions for Punmets World, they look
like I'm gonna kill somebody.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Oh god, I have jump off.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Look, man, I guess there's all those teen magazine sheets.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
It got me into the idea that like, if I
smiled too much, I just looked young.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
So I was like, no, well that must.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
Work, because when I noticed pictures myself now, and I've
been smiling and laughing my whole life, and I smile
and the whole top half of my face just wrinkles up.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Like alrighty, like hi, it's oh yeah, man, I earned those.
I earn those lines. I earned those.

Speaker 8 (02:16):
Oh boyl boy rider, Why did you do your background
just like Danielle?

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Oh you decided I.

Speaker 5 (02:25):
Snuck into Danielle's house took a photo grab. No, my,
just every time we should do that.

Speaker 6 (02:30):
No, aud I am at.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
At Danielle official and uh Jensen carp husband, producer of
this podcast, producer husband of this podcast. I'm at their
house right now because we were going to do a
shoot later today. I get the I get the special chair,
I get the host chair. Yeah, I'm the host.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Put spot so that he didn't have to sit in
some janky corner of the house.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
I would totally take a corner.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
You look great though. To hold up today's paper, Danielle,
so we know you're safe.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Here it is.

Speaker 6 (03:02):
My notes for today's show. I promise I'm fine. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
So, what an exciting day we have. Welcome to pod
meets World. I'm Daniel Fischl, I'm right or strong, and
I'm Wilfredell. So today's guest is someone who, during our
podcast rewatch of season two just absolutely blew us away.
I mean, looking back, we are still children flailing as actors.
And then this seasoned veteran came in and showed us

(03:29):
how it's really done, so much so we wondered why
she didn't come back beyond one episode or even get
her own spinoff. She is a legit iconic Scream queen
and an inductee into the Fangoria Hall of Fame, appearing
in What So's So Cool?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
I subscribe to Fangoria when I was a kid?

Speaker 3 (03:48):
So really cool?

Speaker 6 (03:49):
Yeah it's yeah, it's pretty awesome.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
She is.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
She has appeared in four installments in the Halloween franchise,
including Halloween four and five. In the late eighties as
a kid, She's starred in the movies like Marked for Death,
Don't Tell Mom, The Babysitter's Dead, The Last Boy, Scout,
Free Willie, and Daylight, alongside another Boy Meets World alumni
Trina McGee. She was also the voice of Debbie Thornberry

(04:13):
in the long running Wild Thornberry's and Here are just
some of her endless TV credits. One Life to Live
at Age Seven, Spencer for Hire, Eerie Indiana, a recurring
role on Roseanne, Charmed, The West Wing, and psych and
she was even recently seen in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon
a Time in Hollywood. But today we will focus on

(04:33):
one twenty two minute sitcom episode called Sister Teresa in
nineteen ninety four, where she brilliantly played Harley's badass sister TK.
Let's please welcome Danielle Harris.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Hey, y hi, hi, we'd like to yell people into
our podcast.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Oh my gosh, is that somebody behind you? What is that?

Speaker 8 (05:00):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (05:02):
Yeah, it's one of the monsters from one of the movies,
but he's in different outfits. He's like Victor Crowley from Hatchet,
but he's wearing the Jason mask and she's holding them
Michael Meyer's head, you know whatever.

Speaker 6 (05:13):
It's so cool.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
I love it. Are you?

Speaker 6 (05:17):
Are you afraid of scary movies?

Speaker 7 (05:19):
No, I'm just I can't watch them without picking them apart,
you know, and like see everything like oh they did
that really well or oh she did that really poorly,
or you know, like right, make it just like Knoppy bias.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Right.

Speaker 6 (05:34):
You just directed your first Was it your first feature?

Speaker 7 (05:37):
I did, but it was that was like two that
that was like about twelve years ago. I'm still working
on and I know you were actually going to do something,
and then I think it didn't. You did do it. Okay,
there was something else I thought came through that you
might have been directing that I was trying to like
swoop in, but I don't know.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
What to end up happening. Daniel up against each other.

Speaker 6 (05:56):
No, no, I wanted.

Speaker 7 (05:57):
I wanted to be in your movie you were directing.

Speaker 6 (06:01):
How exciting, I wonder. Yeah, so probably wasn't classmates. Was
it classmates? Oh?

Speaker 7 (06:08):
No, it was something else. But I think maybe your
mom told me about something. And then I was like, oh, well,
your mom has done my hair before.

Speaker 6 (06:16):
Oh my god, Oh that's right.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
She did tell me that my mom is a makeup
artist and a hairdresser.

Speaker 6 (06:21):
And that's right. She told me that she You guys
work together.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
That's so funny.

Speaker 7 (06:24):
What a small ess.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
It's just the smallest world every time.

Speaker 6 (06:29):
Come on, it's so funny.

Speaker 7 (06:31):
Wow. Okay, so we're all intertwined, I know.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
So I'm sure you kind of understand that we are
basically watching Boy Meets World for what feels like the
first time, because even if we saw it when it
was originally on in the nineties, we have barely seen
it since, and so one of the one of the
like most just awe inspiring moments for us rewatching was
your episode of Boy Meets World, Sister Teresa, you are

(07:00):
so incredible, okay, so incredible, Like it really just put
us all to shame.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
We were like, you come on the show and the
show becomes yours.

Speaker 5 (07:10):
Yeah, oh this is its own, this is its own show.

Speaker 7 (07:18):
You know what's crazy is that I've only I've after
I did that episode. I never did another sitcom, another
live audience show until I came back on The Conners
last year. It had been thirty years since.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Was that my choice? Did you actually say like that?

Speaker 7 (07:33):
No? No, but I just couldn't get cast in anything.
I don't know. I just I just started doing more
dramatic stuff. But I much prefer Actually, I don't know.
I couldn't do what you guys did that learning all
that after that many years and a date like, forget
about it. There's no way my brain can't retain, at
my age anymore that that much dialogue.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, it is a lot of dialogue. I don't know
if I could do it now either. I know when
we were kids it was so easy, but I'm not
even sure. I'm not sure it was the girl you
just did it like five year years ago Okay, you're right,
but you didn't have kids yet.

Speaker 7 (08:03):
I know.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, that's true. That's the difference you get. Just man,
it's dad brain too, right too.

Speaker 5 (08:12):
Yeah, it's like a whole part of your brain is
just always occupied, just always worried, always occupied.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
So yeah, adding it to the list.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Well, can you tell us how that episode came about
for you?

Speaker 6 (08:22):
Do you remember your audition? Like, tell us everything about that.

Speaker 7 (08:26):
So the show was such a big deal in our
you know at that time when it was second season
and I had actually auditioned that particular episode. Was my
thirteenth time going to producers for your show. Oh my god,
I know I would.

Speaker 5 (08:43):
I thought maybe you just got offered the part because
you were so well established, because I mean, like, yeah,
I totally assume that they like basically wrote the part
for you.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
I'm sorry, thirteenth thirteenth time for just that role.

Speaker 7 (08:57):
Or no show.

Speaker 5 (08:59):
Yeah, you had auditioned to be every girl on our
show up until that point.

Speaker 7 (09:03):
Oh, and I kept feeling like at some point, like
I kept seeing in the waiting room, like the girls
the same twelve girls started and then like one would
disappear because she would get that week and then the
next episode that girl would disappear from the producer session.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
It was the same of us young actress that was it.

Speaker 7 (09:21):
So I finally I was like, oh, maybe there's a
shot now, and then that one came up and it
was so apparent once I once I got those sides
that I was like, Oh, I can get this one.

Speaker 6 (09:31):
This is like, you know, this is.

Speaker 7 (09:33):
This is kind of me more or less than the
other characters I'd auditioned four So but yeah, thirteenth time.
Thirteenth time was a charm and I had known so
I had known David Traynor, producer director, because he directed
a pilot that I did about two years before that
with Ryan O'Neill, so I kind of knew him. So
when he was in the room this time, I was like, oh, yay,

(09:54):
he's gonna like be nice to me and give me notes.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
A familiar face who knows that what I'm capable of.
And then I directed and all those things.

Speaker 7 (10:01):
Yes that wants to take a minute to sort of
work with me. And then you know, rewatching the episode,
which I did last night, I'm so Harley Kiner's sister,
like right, you know, like I was actually a little
surprised after like years later, I was, you know, of
course watched it for many years after our episode, and
and I thought, God, I totally should have come back
and like been his girlfriend. I could have used some

(10:24):
fun stuff.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
You know.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
That's exactly what we said. We said, this is a relationship.
We really want to see where this goes. Especially seeing
you in the Matthew's kitchen in that tag where you
are just so you just so stand out with that family.
I was like, man, this relationship really should have gone somewhere.
We actually discussed it. You were so you were working
so much during that time. We actually discussed whether or not.

(10:48):
You know, they would have definitely like wanted you to,
but you wouldn't have been available for us.

Speaker 7 (10:52):
Oh dude, I totally would have done it. Oh yeah, No.
That was actually the time that I was just kind
of getting out of the child actor phase and really
slowly starting to get into the team. So I was.
I struggled during that time for a little bit right
after that, where I had a hard time getting jobs.
So I think that you know, I cut my hair

(11:14):
and I put on weight, and I was like rebelling
against all the things that Hollywood was pretending to be
at that time when yeah, you know, all the girls
weighed like eighty pounds and that was like the thing,
and I just I just wasn't that. I wasn't WB
or whatever the hell that was at that ty material.
So so I didn't work for a little bit or
I struggled to get steps. So I totally would have

(11:34):
would have come back. And I know when you guys
did Girl Mats World, I was like, Oh, now's my chance.
The way everybody back and then yeah, yeah, I think, yeah,
I that didn't happen either, But uh.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
I wonder, I wonder how much of it also had
to do with the fact that Danny didn't really come
back too much longer, you know, Danny.

Speaker 7 (11:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, possibly. I also think there were so
many girls that they wanted to have on the show.
Maybe for them that it just was like, oh, we'll
see if that comes about. Let's let's keep bringing on
new people and keep it fresh until, you know, until
they needed to do something else, right, we do.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
We always talk about though.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
One of the things we had a big discussion about
after we watched the episode was the path not taken
and just the dynamic of adding your character into the
friend group, you know, seeing an episode with TK and Tipanga,
in an episode where maybe TK and Sean started.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
I mean, you could have gone a whole different way
with the whole thing.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
So we're talking about inventing a time machine, and we
realized the first thing we have to do is actually
invent it. So if you have any plans or know
anything about that, super helpful.

Speaker 7 (12:41):
And you know, I just actually was watching something I
just interviewed for our show. I interviewed Jamie Kennedy last week,
and he and I had done this show for Disney
and ABC called Oh God No, I'm Forgetting It Hollywood Lives,
and it was like a reality show that was focused
on There was like seven or eight of us that

(13:02):
this crew followed us around on all of our jobs
and all of our auditions. And I actually was doing
this episode.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Well I've seen this, yeah, this to us.

Speaker 5 (13:13):
Yeah, after our podcast episode came out, people sent this
to us.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, and it was really so fascinating.

Speaker 7 (13:19):
I mean now, like I can't imagine how nerve racking
that must have been for me to have only done
one other sitcom essentially before coming onto your show, and
then having this camera crew like follow my every move
and oh my god, I don't know how. I don't
know how we did that.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
I'm glad you brought it up because we actually have
a clip from Hollywood Lives.

Speaker 6 (13:39):
Let's play it now so we can discuss.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
Oh god, since.

Speaker 7 (13:43):
I've been this business since I was four or five
years old, I feel like I have grown up too fast.

Speaker 6 (13:47):
Thing I missed it on going to high school.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
I haven't been in a high school since ninth grade.

Speaker 6 (13:52):
I'm already a senior miss and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
I've always wanted to be a cheerleader.

Speaker 6 (13:56):
You know we're now.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
It's because I didn't have that.

Speaker 7 (13:58):
I like, I go.

Speaker 6 (13:59):
I want to go to the problem.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
I want to be a cheerleader.

Speaker 6 (14:00):
I wanted to be on the yearbook, to mean, I
want to do all these things.

Speaker 7 (14:04):
Didn't get a chance to do.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Who is that?

Speaker 7 (14:07):
That isn't even salad?

Speaker 6 (14:09):
I know, such a little girl voice.

Speaker 7 (14:11):
Oh my god, that's crazy. I still want to do
all that stuff, but I didn't get Yeah, you know,
we're all kid after so you have when you finally
have your own family, you're able to go back and
do all of those things that you couldn't do. Like
my kids, you know, I'm out, Like we moved. I
moved to the country because I've got two boys, and
like we go camping and we ride dirt bikes, and

(14:33):
we go in the lake and like all those things
that we weren't I particularly wasn't allowed to do because
I couldn't get hurt. You know, we were working and
there was no time for any of that stuff. So
that's really important to me as I now am able
to sort of do it over again with with kids.
But how sad I still didn't go to prom.

Speaker 5 (14:52):
It's so funny to talk about. I mean, we talked
so with so many child actors, and it's always seems
to be like all we all craved was normalcy, right,
like whatever that was. And then of course when we
were in those normal situations, if we got lucky enough,
all anybody would do is like point us out as
like you're the person on TV.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Which we hated.

Speaker 5 (15:09):
Yeah, And it's like that's why we all hated being
things like as long as we liked the work, we
didn't we wanted to be able to like flip a switch,
you know, and just be like go back to normal.

Speaker 7 (15:18):
And I think that's why a lot of us were
we stayed friends with each other or we rolled in
the same group because nobody ever talked about what they
were working on. Nobody ever talked about anything. But I
know we were all eighteen and like owned our own
homes or like close to it, you know. I mean,
that's nuts to think about all that. And we also
grew up in Hollywood in the nineties. Like I can't

(15:39):
imagine what these kids have to go through now. We
we got out just in time, I mean, just in life,
by the nit.

Speaker 5 (15:46):
You know.

Speaker 7 (15:46):
I said about my marriage too, I'm like, I married
you before the dating apps, thank god, because that could
have been a breaking disaster, you know. So I think
that's the same thing. Like we we really we we
had it really good in Hollywood in the nineties. At
least I did. None of us like went down that
dark that dark path that we could have gone down. Thankfully. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (16:05):
Absolutely. Today we announce our biggest undertaking yet.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Pod Meets World is going on the road with a
brand new show.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
It's the Kids Want to Jump Tour.

Speaker 5 (16:20):
We are thrilled to be traveling the country, eating regional
fast food and meeting our listeners.

Speaker 6 (16:25):
We'll be telling even more backstage stories, taking your questions,
recreating classic scenes, offering some meet and greet action, and
holding a costume contest in every city.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
Yeah, dresses anything from Boy Meets World or Pod Meats World,
from main cast to wildly obscure, and will be picking
a winner to get an official Boy Meets World shooting script,
the actual one I use in the nineties, signed by
all of us. Good luck finding one of those the
PONWDN shop. No, really good luck, because I sold a few.
Let's just say I was a quibi investor.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
We have already announced our first seven days. We're kicking
it off in Minneapolis on July.

Speaker 3 (17:02):
Twentieth, Milwaukee on July twenty first, and Royal Oak, Michigan
on July twenty second.

Speaker 6 (17:07):
Then we are off to Nashville on August fourth.

Speaker 5 (17:10):
I know one good friend you might join us there,
Saint Louis on August fifth.

Speaker 6 (17:14):
And also Kansas City on August sixth.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
And then we're coming to Orlando on September eighteenth. It's
a different show every night, and we'll have all new March.

Speaker 6 (17:25):
Pre sales starts this Wednesday, May third, at ten am
local time. Just use the code cool ceol cool.

Speaker 5 (17:33):
And public on sale starts Friday, May fifth, also at
ten am local.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
You can go to podmeetsworldshow dot com now for more
info and links on how to purchase early on Wednesday.

Speaker 6 (17:43):
Maybe just keep refreshing until then.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah, that might be too much.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Pod Meets World. The kids want to jump to our
be coming to you. Don't miss it.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
We talk a lot too, especially when we talk to child.
Did you ever experience and it sounds like you did.
Did you ever experience any type of like burnout where
you were like, that's it, I'm done, i don't want
to do this anymore. I'm just gonna go away. And
if so, what was that like for you? And when
did it happen? What sparked it?

Speaker 3 (18:17):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (18:17):
Girl, it's still happening. But I think I moved to Texas.
You can't stand Hollywood. Yeah, I mean I think it
really was around the transition period where I was no
longer and I'm still going through. You know, I'm forty
six and when I get calls, which never really happens,
but if I do, it's for you know, an episodic

(18:37):
where I'm playing it's like forty five to fifty five,
and I'm like, I'm never going to get this. I
just feel so dumb. And I think that around that
period too, I just felt like I couldn't quite find
my thing. I always played kind of the tough girl,
but they were I wasn't like the lead. I wasn't
quite like the sidekick. I was sort of in between.
So I was just like, I'm done. I'm cutting my hair,

(19:00):
I'm gaining weight, I'm doing that I want to do.
I got my real estate license. I was like, I'm
going to do this. I'm going to try something totally different.
That lasted for about a month, and I was like,
I hate this. I don't want to do this anymore.
This is awful. Everyone thinks I'm like fifteen trying to
sell them a house. So I just kind of dug
my heels into the horror community, which really was the

(19:23):
only thing that welcomed me back and gave me those,
you know, those lead roles that I wasn't going to
get doing any other genre. I was able to like
flex my acting muscles and really carry a film and
not have to be on this a list, so to speak.
So I sort of went, well, maybe I should sort
of lean into that and not worry so much about

(19:45):
I got to be on a show. I got to
be series regular, and I need to be in Hollywood.
I need to do this and that, because that wasn't
paying the bills anyway, right, I mean, I definitely do
better financially because of the horror community. I mean, you're
directing court like that. World is unbelievable. And it's also
like the pop culture. I mean, it's the it's the
same thing. It's the kids of the nineties, Like there

(20:06):
are age now. When I do these appearances, it's not
young kids. It's like everybody our age. Everybody comes up
to me at a horror convention and I would say
one out of every ten people are talk about boy
muse world Wow constantly, constantly, constantly. I love it. I
even have the picture on my table.

Speaker 6 (20:24):
Yes, that's so great.

Speaker 7 (20:27):
I'm like, this is this is I mean, that's just
what we It feels good, you know, nostalgia. And I
think this may maybe I shouldn't go about this, but
I know when like Girl Meets World came back and
they were starting bring kind of some people back again,
and and I thought, God, they're missing they're missing something
here because who they think is watching it's not who's watching.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
Right, they're aiming for the kids. They're aiming for eleven
thirteen year olds, and you're like, no.

Speaker 7 (20:53):
No, they're on they're on YouTube. They're not. They're not,
They're not.

Speaker 5 (20:56):
Should have a show. It should have been it should
have been a grown up ABC show about being parents,
and it.

Speaker 7 (21:02):
Would have it would have gone in two seconds because
you had you had all the audience back.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, that's why Fuller House worked. I mean, it's exactly
why full House the same thing. So, yeah, that's great.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
Back in the day, though, you did some of the
greatest films. I mean, you were in some stuff that
I mean one after another of just it's.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Are you putting Marked for Death?

Speaker 7 (21:24):
As the.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Hell, yes i am.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
I'm putting things that mattered to me.

Speaker 5 (21:28):
I never seen Mark for Death. But before we got
to you, it was like, which one is that? Because
there's all those like movies that have the same name,
but they're just like Mark for Death, the how is
it the como to kill?

Speaker 3 (21:41):
That's yeah, no, but you did. I mean it was
that in the Last Boy Scout.

Speaker 4 (21:45):
There were films that were were you know, one or two, three,
four after another that were just phenomenally which were big budgets.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yes, yeah, big budget.

Speaker 7 (21:53):
I mean those don't exist anymore.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
I mean not to that extent.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
No, I mean, is there one that stands out for
you that from back in the day that really kind
of was an amazing experience or an experience at least
that you I mean, don't tell mom.

Speaker 7 (22:06):
The Babysitters Dead was probably like one of the only
movies that I've done still where they really made a
point to allow us to be kids on Yeah, you know,
we had like Nintendo and the trailer we had. We
were able to go swimming during lunch like that never
happens where they're like, go in the pool, you guys,
go swimming. We'll dry your hair after to go back
to work.

Speaker 6 (22:26):
That's amazing.

Speaker 7 (22:27):
Yeah, So Steve and Herrick was really good about making
sure that we were just kids, and I think it shows.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
I was gonna say that really plays on camera with
my boy Keith Coogan, who was the greatest guys in the.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
World, So I love him. He's amazing film. Yeah, so
that I guess that.

Speaker 7 (22:45):
I mean The Last Boy Scout too. I think I
really didn't know how big that movie was until I
got much older. There's actually a scene in that movie
where it probably took me ten years to rewatch it
again once I got older and watch this audition scene
and there was a line that I had in the
movie where I remembered not knowing what it meant when

(23:06):
I said it, but it's still was funny. And the
line was, I'm doing this scene where Damon WANs is
meeting me for the first time and we're in the
living room and he's got a shaved head, but his
hair shows a number in the back of his head, right,
so he's bald, but this like hair number thirteen or whatever.
And the line is like, Hey, what's that number in
the back of your head? Is that like a license

(23:28):
plate in case somebody tries to steal it? And he says, no,
it's my high school number. And I say, oh, so
when do you graduate? And stupid, honestly, I didn't realize
that I was making a joke of the fact that
he's obviously in his thirties. Yes, I was saying that
he was seventeen. And I mean, it literally took me
a decade to go, oh, that's no yet at thirteen,

(23:52):
you don't know what the hell you're saying. But as
long as they're laughing, it's all that matters.

Speaker 5 (23:55):
Oh no. We talk about on Boy Meets World the
amount of references that they had, especially like fifties references
or even like earlier no clue, like we had no clue,
and like still to this day, those are usually the
only references I have to those references.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
It's like, oh, yeah, there was a pointys worldline about that.

Speaker 5 (24:09):
And I said it, but I don't know what family
matter or what was the one that We've also had
guest stars like will you always point out like so
and so was on our show from love Bote, I'm like,
no idea.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
I don't know what love boat is. I don't know
who that was. But I worked with them for a week,
you know.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
But there's also stuff that still went over your head.
I mean, we watch an episode the other day where
Danielle and I like, this episode starts with an erection joke,
and right where who doesn't.

Speaker 8 (24:33):
It's like, what are you talking about the blood flowing?
Talking about blood flowing as your kids, that's an erection joke.
He's like, oh, I I probably didn't get it back
then either, yea at all.

Speaker 7 (24:43):
Maybe that's what makes it so endearing you know, yeah,
for sure, and actually so writer. So you know, I
worked with your brother on a pilot. I don't know
if you know the track it was. It was called
odd Man Out and it was Shiloh was This Star
and Hi Hillary Swink was made to show.

Speaker 5 (25:04):
Meredith Sallenger Sallenger Man and you know they redid that
show after. The writers of that show were Ed Dector
and John Strauss, who came on to Boy Meets World
and then they had huge success with There's Something About Mary,
so they got to make whatever they wanted and they
went back and did odd Man Out over again with
a new generation.

Speaker 7 (25:23):
And I think it was on ABC, like T or something.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
It came on, Yeah, and that lasted I think only
a season or two.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
But I was on that.

Speaker 5 (25:30):
Yeah, I think that that's the one you went and
guested on when I was on show. But you know
that pilot was so that was a good pilot, That's right.
I forgot that you were in that with him.

Speaker 7 (25:39):
What a cast.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
That was? That was.

Speaker 5 (25:43):
Chila was supposed to do that show, and when that
show didn't get picked up, they offered him the Mommies
or they wanted to network him for Boy Meets World.
To be Will's character, and he chose the job because
he didn't want to have to test again, so we
just took the job on the Mommies.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
Yeah, thank you for a whole other way.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (26:03):
I Will obviously like Will, I know you. I met
you through Jenna. Yeah, you know back and actually you
were living in the building with jenevan Oi. Right, did
she got an apartment there?

Speaker 1 (26:16):
No, no, I writer, did you? It was just very
close with Jenna. Jenna and I spent so much time together.
She was a few years older than me, and I
just thought she was the coolest ever Toyota.

Speaker 7 (26:29):
Yes, oh my.

Speaker 6 (26:30):
Own, Oh my god. I was such a fan.

Speaker 4 (26:32):
But that's what we bonded over on our first date
because she took me out to she was like interviewing
me like you did Danielle for like sixteen magazine or
something like that.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
She was doing those as well, and we went out
and we both said, oh, we're both I'm from Connecticut.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
She's like, I'm from.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
Connecticut, and as well, I have a Toyota Celica. She's like,
I have a Toyota Cela.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
And it was like the end of that night we
were dating.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, listeners who don't know. We're talking about jenavon Oy,
who we all have a connection to on this. So
that's so that's are you guys still friends?

Speaker 7 (27:01):
Yeah, I mean I saw her. I did a show
in Nashville like two years ago, and I called her
and we took our kids out to breakfast. Yeah, she
is awesome. We still kind of look like we could
be sister. I mean, I know, you know five ft
all of us.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
I know, when you're a child actor man being short, it's.

Speaker 7 (27:22):
A bonus's yeah, it's true.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
So going back to your week on Boy Meets World,
what do you remember, if anything, about either Blake or
or Danny Ethan? What do you remember about that week?

Speaker 7 (27:35):
So this is actually funny. So I had the biggest
crush on Blake and I don't know if so I
had a crush on Blake and he was friends with
a mutual friend of mine, god, Heidi Lucas and another
child actor. And I'm sure if you saw her you

(27:57):
would remember. I have a seen since I was probably
like my teen, but I think I met Blake on
your show and then I was like, oh my god,
he's so cutie, so cute. She's like, oh my god,
he's my friend. And that was back in the day
where there was three way calling where you could like
not know the other person was on silent. You'd like
click click them on on your phone. And and Heidi

(28:20):
called Blake after the show and said, hey, you know,
so he worked with my friend at Ellen.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
What do you think of her?

Speaker 5 (28:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (28:26):
And he was like, oh, she's really nice and he's
being really pecy about it. And then they ended up
hanging up and I was still on and then you know,
her and I talked like, oh my god, oh my god,
a wonderful go out with me, blah blah blah. And
then at some point I heard I don't know, maybe
I will, and I was like, he never hung up
the phone.

Speaker 5 (28:48):
I was like, oh, karma, man, that's karma. That was
like you were trying to trick him and he got you.

Speaker 7 (28:54):
Of course, I immediately just hung up the phone. And
then they never I never saw him and never talked
about it ever again.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Oh no.

Speaker 7 (29:02):
Freaked out. Well, I mean I had I had a
great time, you know, it was it was really one
of the Again, I I had just done Roseanne, so
I didn't have I'd never been on another show where
where there were other kids my age essentially, and you
guys were great and obviously all friends and got along
and it was warm and welcoming, and it gave me

(29:23):
the freedom to just play I had. I had a
great time, so and I mean it didn't work out
between Blake and I. But you know, and Danielle, you
weren't on the show. I think you were just there
doing school. You weren't on that episode.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
I'd be surprised if I was even there doing school
because I always went back to my regular school. Okay, right,
So on weeks that I wasn't in the show, I
wasn't even on set. So yeah, it was such a
bummer because watching the episodes then that I'm not in,
I'm always like, oh man, I bet that was I
want to be there for the behind the scenes stuff.
But also I was so rooting to see more of

(29:57):
your character, and yet had your character really taken off there,
we probably wouldn't have really ever crossed paths. But like
Will said, it's it's such a shame that there wasn't
like a different version of the show where we could
have the show that we have, because that's great in
and of itself. But then also I want to travel
through all the different lines and lives and all the
different storylines we could have had if we had just

(30:17):
kept more characters around or never let people go.

Speaker 6 (30:21):
So yeah, it's so much fun.

Speaker 7 (30:23):
A bunch of my friends actually messaged me after hearing
I guess you guys talked about the fourth sister, Sister
Teresa not too long ago, and everybody was taught and
messing me like, they're talking about.

Speaker 6 (30:33):
You, but why are you gonna be on the show?

Speaker 7 (30:35):
And I was like, I'm supposed to be on What
do you mean we're talking about it? I thought I
was going to do the episode and then they're like,
oh no, no, you guys do it in two different parts.
So yeah, I was happy about that.

Speaker 4 (30:44):
It was we were all just so blown away with
how much more advanced as an actor you just seemed
than the rest of us, and so to then kind
of now retroactively hear that this was the second time
you'd ever done a sick time.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
I mean, it's just the whole thing is so yeah.

Speaker 5 (30:58):
But but she've been working and she they were four
or five. Yeah, five, you had so much experience and
you had done had you done a soap already?

Speaker 2 (31:07):
At this point.

Speaker 7 (31:07):
Yeah, I did a soap for two years. Then I
started doing film and then Movie of the Weeks.

Speaker 5 (31:12):
When that was say, seems like soaps are like a
great thing for young actors, because the same thing with
Lindsay Price, like she walked onto our set and was like,
I can do tears.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
You need tears and it was like those Yeah, and
she had.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
Done years on a soap, and it's like, wow, what
a proving ground, you know, because you just have to
do you know, five episodes a day or whatever.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
It's like you just get that muscle and.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
You just learn it, so you you don't have time
to get into your character to start crying. You just
have to start crying.

Speaker 7 (31:36):
It's just and I still don't have time, you know.
I do like indie horror, so there's still like three seconds,
twelve you know, twelve pages and eighteen pages a day,
just in complete insanity. But I think I think I
I enjoyed your show so much because coming from Roseanne,
I had a heart. I struggled a lot on that show.
I had a hard time, you know, the writing. My

(31:58):
character on that show was always the one that set
up the jokes for Sarah Gilbert like I was always
like I never got I never left an episode feeling
like I did a good job, Like I never got
the laugh, I never got the direction or the attention.
It was always do this so we can then make
her this interesting. So I had a harder time. So
I think coming back coming to years, I was like,

(32:19):
oh my god, this is how it could be if
I just had a little bit of of reassurance and
you know, positive reinforcement, and and I was given funny
stuff to say.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
And do you know, episode is yours. It's basically just
Ben reacting to you. That's the entire episode.

Speaker 5 (32:36):
It's like you come in like a tornado and the
whole show has to like reorient itself around you. It's amazing,
but it takes such confidence for that age to be
able to think.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
You were finding things that maybe wouldn't have been funny
with anybody else. That was the other thing is you
were making things where it was like, oh, another actor
probably wouldn't have gone that route and it wouldn't have
found the same joke. Yeah, yeah, that was That was
very impressive with that. As I was watching and it
was kind of like, oh, I bet that wasn't on
the page like that was on and she did that

(33:06):
on her feet like that was.

Speaker 7 (33:07):
Just been me. Yeah, I mean, I'm you know, I
grew up in Brooklyn like a kind of like kind
of was always sort of a tough girl, so I
think that was Like again, when I read for it,
I was like, oh I could do this, Oh yeah,
oh yeah, I got this, this as mine. And then
I was happy that I didn't get any of the
other times at that audition because this was a much better,
more vvorable character being a sister.

Speaker 4 (33:27):
You know.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, it's such a good reminder that, like when when
things don't seem like they're working out in your favor,
to just remind yourself, like, no, it is working out
in my favor. I didn't get the job I want,
but it's because the better one, the one that's meant
for me, is around the corner.

Speaker 7 (33:41):
And I didn't know, you know, who knows that they
had they were thinking about bringing somebody on for a
sister or you know, I don't, I don't know what
they what they had already had in mind. So I
was just glad that I got to be a.

Speaker 6 (33:50):
Part of that.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yeah, you were, like you said, the little bit of
the kind of like tough girl was so part of
your personality. And yet you also mentioned you're five feet tall.
You're like a little spitfire, which I just love. But

(34:13):
you were also a little older than Ben. Oh my god,
what do you remember about your dynamic with Ben and
working together that week?

Speaker 7 (34:22):
He was petrified of me.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
I mean, he That's why it's so good. It's good
because it was real.

Speaker 7 (34:29):
Yeah, he really was petrified. I distinctly remember when I
have to when I like go to kiss him for
the first time in the I guess like in the
school school, and every time I would go in to
do it, it's from rehearsals to like just before we
were like rolling, he would.

Speaker 6 (34:51):
Like do this, and I kept feeling like scared. He's
supposed to like me.

Speaker 7 (34:56):
I mean, I am coming on a little strong, but
to be like, oh god, oh god, and like, is
she gonna kiss me?

Speaker 5 (35:02):
But I think he was fourteen, No, he probably was
only thirteen. I think he was only thirteen. Yeah, so
he would have been thirteen and you were like seventeen.

Speaker 7 (35:10):
Or I was almost eighteen.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
Yeah, we're the same aid you and I made. So
it was Yeah, it was that, But that was always
Ben Ben.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah, he did the same thing when I went to
go kiss him in the pilot and there in the
in my first episode, it was a I mean.

Speaker 7 (35:25):
When is that? I was like, Oh, I don't know
what to do. I remember just looking at David like
I I'm not.

Speaker 5 (35:31):
Sure it works for the episode though. It makes it
such a deer in the headlights the entire time.

Speaker 7 (35:36):
When the audience comes in like or like are we
gonna write to be like this? Or I'm not sure
is he supposed to want to kiss me back? As
it totally changes how I'm going to react after that,
you know, right, I think I like, do something with
his fuzzy head or something and then walk off all saddy.
But if he's going to be freaked out, then it
would fall for something else.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Speaking of which I just remembered too that you are
actually wearing a skirt thank you that has the sex
pistols font and it just says sex kitten, sex kitten.

Speaker 7 (36:09):
Oh interesting, What the hell was I wearing?

Speaker 6 (36:15):
I don't know, but I wanted to ask you. Do
you remember your wardrobe fittings? Do you remember the clothes?

Speaker 7 (36:20):
Yes? So there's actually a story about that. My best
guy friend at the time he has passed away since
I used to be Ben's tennis coach or be on
the same team that Ben was on, I want to say,
like bell Air or something or other. And I loved
that black leather jacket. And I remember leaving him telling

(36:42):
my friend Adam like, I love this jecket, I love
this jack I love the jacket. And for Christmas that year,
I think it was the Christmas birthday, he tracked down
Ben from he had talked to him in like five
years or ten years or something, tracked him down through
a mutual friend or something, and Ben got Adam in
touch with out of wardrobe and bought that jacket for me,

(37:03):
which of course I probably got rid of it a
garage so because I don't have it anymore, but you know, I.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Hold it up right now that was there.

Speaker 7 (37:12):
It is. I still have my leather Like my leather
jackets are like something that makes me feel very comfortable
ering confident. And I noticed like I wear them a lot,
just in movies. If I have a choice of like
what I'm going to wear, I'll always bring my own
or it's like my safety blanket. So so yeah, so
so Ben helped facilitate me getting that leather jacket from Wardrobe.

Speaker 6 (37:33):
Cool, what a wonderful story.

Speaker 4 (37:35):
Yeahs, the rider has the sex kitten skirt.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Yeah, I kept that.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
Wears a choice. So you've mentioned a few times pilots
that you've done. How many pilots have you done? Would
you say in the course of your career?

Speaker 7 (37:57):
I don't even know, maybe like twenty from Wow. Yeah,
none of them went literally none of them.

Speaker 6 (38:05):
Actually, okay, I'm.

Speaker 7 (38:10):
Gonna write a book. One day. I had an animated
what I did an animated series for Nickeoladeon called The
Wild Thorn Berriers, And then I went on to do
a show called Uh, Father of the Pride and it
was DreamWorks and it was about Roy, say Freed and Roy,
but it was the story revolved around the White Lions tigers.

(38:32):
So it was me, John Goodman, Chryl Hines, Uh, oh
my God, like Eddie Murphy, like everyeople came back on
did you like Donkeys?

Speaker 6 (38:42):
Budget huge?

Speaker 7 (38:44):
So we recorded for a year. We did thirteen episodes,
cameras in the rooms and you know, did it was
all of a sudden, the White Life, you know, she
looked like me, like starting Okay, it's crazy. And then
we premiered we we were we premier I think one episode.
It was the first primetime show like that for NBC.

(39:04):
We premiered our first show. It was a big hit,
and then Roy got mauled in real life on stage
by the Tiger.

Speaker 6 (39:13):
Yeah, right, all the time that the Tiger ruined your pilot.

Speaker 7 (39:18):
Well, well we had to go back. We were nominated
for a People's Choice Award, and we had to go
back and redo all of these episodes because throughout the
show we're making fun of Sigfried and Roy, like they're
very dramatic, they're very flamboyant, and now the jokes are
just not funny because he's literally fighting for his life. Yeah,

(39:39):
so we were like, oh, of all the times, the
one time I get on show, on a primetime show, Like,
what are the odds of this happening? So my career
has always been a little bit, a little bit funny
like that. But one day they'll be there are good
stories to tell at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
I mean, any other any other pilots that really stand
out you want to talk about, just ones.

Speaker 7 (39:59):
That I didn't I didn't get that I wish I
would have, that would have totally changed my career. I
tested against nev four party of five. Yes, I can
see that, and I had tested five times before she
came out from Canada. I even read with all of
the Baileyes, like I was there. It was like Johnny

(40:19):
Whitworth and Scott and Scott got were there together. So
it was like me in network with the two of
them reading for it, and I was in there for
their work sessions. And then I went and tested against
Ashley Lovitt actually for that role, and then they let
Ashley go and then I came back and the notes
were they wanted me to be sexier. It was fox right,

(40:42):
that's the worst. They wanted me to be sexier. But
the character like she's fifteen. Yeah. The scene that I
was reading was me talking to Bailey about how I
liked this boy and I've never had a first kiss
and I did understand.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
You know, you only had the sex Kittens truck.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
Yeah tell yeah, So I don't mean that character is
not sexy at all. No, No, I went in. I was.

Speaker 7 (41:12):
I wore like like a dress, like a low cut
dress and like heels, like what I thought was sexy
at fifteen, you know, which was so not probably what
they were looking for. And then I remember Ned came
in from Canada and she was wearing overalls and a
tube top and I was but she's much chessier than
I was. But I was like, I feel like I
feel so dumb, I mean, like a dress in heels.

(41:34):
And she was like nineteen. I was sixteen, but I
was emancipated, but I was still sixteen, and so I
didn't get it. She got it. But and you know
at the end when they take you in in groups
of like here's Group A, and you're like, oh, they
all look alike, that's the choice. And then you're in
the you're like, yeah, group, So like we need to explain.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
We need to explain two things for our dear listeners. One,
let's talk about what it means to be emancipated as
a minor.

Speaker 7 (42:03):
So emancipated basically, when you're under eighteen, there are rules
that production has to follow, like school, certain hours you
can work. And they don't like that because they want
to work you as much as they possibly can and
it restricts them. So you have to go hire an attorney.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Like this is what I did.

Speaker 7 (42:20):
A hire an attorney, and I had to go before
a judge and basically say, my grades are this, I
would like to be considered a legal adult so I
can have all of the same responsibilities and benefits of
being a legal adult in the workplace. I was. I
moved out of my house, I bought a house. I
mean I was. I was an adult.

Speaker 6 (42:39):
And how old were you when you did that?

Speaker 7 (42:41):
I was almost seventeen.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
I have to be sixteen. You can't do it before
you're sixteen. I did it at sixteen to sixteen.

Speaker 7 (42:48):
I mean, we're already adults at that point. Anyway. I mean,
I guess, thank god we didn't do I mean, I
don't know. I don't know what happens. I don't know
how that works, you know, legally, like if we did,
if we got in trouble at sixteen and we were mancipate,
are we trying?

Speaker 3 (43:03):
Yes, you are yes adult yea.

Speaker 7 (43:06):
And also it's emancipated.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Really, you know you never got emancipate it noither.

Speaker 6 (43:11):
My parents were absolutely not.

Speaker 5 (43:13):
I guess, well, you were still on boy. I was
doing other jobs. I guess I was still on boy too.
But it was actually, like I remember, it worked for
for me to be able to go do party five
because they were one of the companies that were like,
we don't hire anybody who's not emancipated. So when I was,
I got emancipated, and then I got you know, of
recurring on Party of five.

Speaker 7 (43:30):
I wonder if that's still a thing. I mean, I
don't know what it is. I don't know how things
work nowadays with these these young'ins, But I mean I'm
assuming it's still there's still laws and rules and all that.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
I don't think there are any rules on TikTok.

Speaker 7 (43:42):
No.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
You can do whatever you want to do.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Yeah, if you're an influencer, I don't think they're following
any rules. You know. That's that's what's scary.

Speaker 7 (43:51):
Well. I mean, and I could talk to you guys
for hours about this. I you know, I still have
a ton of kid actor friends, and and I've talked
to Keith Coogan forts and lengths about this as well
as Corey Feldman and everybody about just really trying to
push the I still can't believe there's only fifteen percent
taken out of a miner's paycheck in only what five states?

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (44:11):
How is that still only happening in five states?

Speaker 4 (44:14):
And isn't isn't the actual law based around how much
money you have to save based on Keith's dad, his grandfather,
He's grandfather, so.

Speaker 7 (44:22):
Yes, it's Jackie Koh again, yeah, because he you know
in the thirties is he lost all of his money
and I, unfortunately, you know, was one of those similar
support in my family and turned eighteen and I you know,
they didn't that wasn't happening. And when I lived in
New York and I didn't move to LA until I
was thirteen, almost fourteen, so I only had four years
essentially of that fifteen percent. And what I think they
should do is flip it yea and have the majority

(44:47):
like pay art you know, aar taxes, do all that stuff.
Give the parents. You know, I think if if there
was seventy five percent on hold, that many more parents
would not be getting their kids into the entertainment industry
as cash cows the ones that are doing it for
the wrong reasons. I think if there was, if there
was a cap on it and it flipped like that,
they wouldn't be so inclined to like push their kids

(45:08):
into the business if they didn't want to be in it,
which makes.

Speaker 4 (45:11):
More sense because your parents a lot of times are
acting quote unquote acting as a manager or an agent.
So an agent gets ten percent, a manager gets fifteen percent.
There you go, the parents get fifteen percent instead of
a manager something like that. That definitely seems fair and
makes more sense because we all know people that worked
and worked and worked and worked and worked and at
the end of the day had nothing nothing, and it's

(45:31):
because somebody took it, somebody invested it, somebody.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
No, I'll don't worry, kid, I'll take care of your money.
And then, you know, I mean I did it.

Speaker 7 (45:37):
I hired a business manager when I was fifteen because
my mom my dad had passed. My mom didn't know
anything about finances, and I was like, I don't know
what to do. I was making a lot of money
right around that fourteen fifteen sixteen, you know time period,
and I had a business manager and I signed over
power of attorney for him to just make sure that

(45:58):
I was taken care of. And sure enough came eighteen
and I had all these years of unpaid taxes that
I didn't know. I bought my house. I lost my house,
you know, I had to sell it. They garnished my wages,
they emptied my.

Speaker 6 (46:10):
Bank account, like, oh that was that's horrible.

Speaker 7 (46:13):
From fourteen fifteen and sixteen of I didn't know my
taxes weren't paid. I was signing something. I don't know
where the checks aren't getting sent out. You know, you
have no idea we trust people. So I had I
had to start over again, and it took me until
I was thirty to buy another house. And I still
like and then that's stuff, and I just feel like,
you know, I remember calling and being like, well I

(46:33):
would see commercials back then, and I mean literally a
human being came and knocked on my like they would
knock on my front door when I was eighteen from
the I r s like when a human being shows up,
it's bad, it's really scary. And my roommate and Natalia,
actually I think terror. I think Natalia Seglute probably know Natalia.

Speaker 6 (46:56):
So sweet.

Speaker 7 (46:57):
So Natalia and I and Tara Reid were all living together.
They were in my house and yeah, it was crazy.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Then lends a pilot.

Speaker 7 (47:08):
So nuts and uh and and they would come knock
on my door and I would hide and and like
Natalia would get the door and be like she's she's
not here, She's not here, I mean it was really scary.
And then we're you know again, so so we're we're
held responsible for stuff that happens to us when we're minors,
like a member going and being like, what is this
pennies on the dollar? Like how can I negotiate with

(47:29):
the irs? I have no money, I don't know what
to do. I mean, I'm not working, Like it was
all around that time where I was like, I can't
do this anymore and uh, and they were like, pennies
on the dollar, we'll get our You're only eighteen, like,
we'll get our money from you at some point, so
we don't. We don't do that for people like you.
So you're like, okay, well you just kind of pick
up and you and you start over, you move on,

(47:50):
but we're all still standing. So we did something right,
you know.

Speaker 4 (47:53):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
The other thing we have to explain for our dear
listeners before we forget is let's explain what it means
to do twenty pilots or twenty five pilots and then
for them not to go. We've talked about it a
little bit where we've mentioned that you know, you audition
for something, you get a callback for something, then you're
going to test for something, and by the way that
makes it sound like it's easy, it's sometimes twelve thirteen,

(48:26):
fourteen auditions before you get to that point where now
you're going to test, and before you test for network,
you get to see your contract.

Speaker 6 (48:33):
You have to agree to the terms of your.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
Career, your contract. You get to see how much you're
going to make, because.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
It's going to be every year, it's still done. It's
not that he hasn't changed. So you get to sit down,
what do I do?

Speaker 2 (48:45):
How's my life going to change?

Speaker 7 (48:46):
And you know that from the time that you walk
out of the room, so you For me, most of
the time, I would know before I got to my
car if I got the job or.

Speaker 5 (48:56):
Not it does and then you'd have to sit around
and wait for five seven days sometimes just keep you yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
And that's now. Yeah, now, back in the day.

Speaker 5 (49:03):
It was back in the day they would make decisions
within hours. But no, I feel like the last ten
to fifteen years they'll just take their time and the
whole other sessions and keep you dangling.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
Yeah awful, Well it was it was back in the day.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
You. I mean, there were times I was literally in
a smoke filled room with them smoking cigarettes and would
bring me back in and if you got the part
kid like an old school kind of thing. And then
there's a weird thing where you're you're getting your contracts
and you're looking at your contracts, and your lawyers and
your agents have to go through your contracts, and you
get this combination of everything is mixed signals in this industry.

(49:36):
So you get the combination of you have to sign
your life away. This is your contract letter of the law.
But then your agents and lawyers tell you, but if
the show's a hit, we can renegotiate everything. It's like,
well wait, yeah, is it what's on the page?

Speaker 3 (49:47):
Well, yeah, but.

Speaker 6 (49:50):
Six or seven year contract.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Everyone understood that around year three there was a renegotiation negotiation.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Even though you signed, you still even.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Yeah, three year three ornegotiations, so you try to get
to the third years.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
So weird I also did.

Speaker 7 (50:06):
There was one other pilot that I did that got
that to get picked up actually and it got it
got switched around. It was called That's Life and it
was on CBS and it was Paul Servino, Ellen Burston,
w Mazar Kevin Dyllan had their cast cast pilot Crazy yeah, going, God,

(50:28):
well this one went. But so I auditioned tested as
a series regular and got the job and got the pilot,
and then the pilot became U got picked up, and
I then was turned into a guest star top of
the show for all nineteen episodes what come on? Because

(50:51):
they brought on apparently they brought on. They didn't say
who wanted, either Paul or Ellen or somebody else they
didn't have at the beginning, and it ate up the money.
So it was my I could either they're gonna They're
basically like, we're writing her out as a series regular,
but we can offer her a recurring for.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
You know, every episode, for every for every episode.

Speaker 7 (51:13):
I did it, and I did it, and I was like,
under the guise of okay, but if this, if this is,
if this goes good, then you know, next year they're
going to do the right thing. You know, they'll make
me a stories regular. And by the end of that
first season, I took over that damn show. It was
I was a storyline and nobody was happy about it.
And it was me and Kevin Dillon. We got married
on the show, and it was like a whole thing.
And then the next year it came back, and they

(51:34):
still didn't make me a series regular. They brought on
Titus well Over and they were like, sorry, you know,
we don't we don't really have it in the budget,
but if you want to do the show. So there
was a lot of a lot of like, well, do
I hold my ground and say no, I'm not going
to come back?

Speaker 2 (51:51):
Yeah, which is so terrifying for actors. I mean, that's
the thing, it's the worst.

Speaker 5 (51:55):
That's the problem with being an actor is that you're
so you're so disempowered, you know, you just you always
feel like you have to you want to be the trooper,
you know, you want to show up and you want
to get along, to get along and not make any waves.

Speaker 7 (52:06):
And now do you think that that is because we
were children actors that we were like, you can't be difficult.

Speaker 5 (52:13):
No, I mean I think it's I think it's probably
increased because of that, sure, but I think it's it's
a pressure all actors feel, right Like, I feel like
all actors feel like like we should be lucky that
we're there, do you know what I mean? But it's
also there's many people that want that job.

Speaker 4 (52:28):
You know how hard it is to get the job,
so you know that going to the next one, You're like,
I have to start over again.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
If I say no to this job that I've wanted
to do forever, it's and you.

Speaker 7 (52:37):
May never work again. They may never bring you back
for anything. You may have ruined your you know, value,
difficult to work with and your and they know that,
so they play know that. Yeah, so I think. I mean,
I don't even know how it would be nowadays, Like
I can't even imagine having this big of a pool
to have to tell it.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
I mean, I get it.

Speaker 7 (52:53):
I mean the offers. That's why I stay in my
horror community because the other stuff is like I went
to my first premiere. I don't if you guys have
been to a movie premiere in a while, but I
went to my first movie premiere in the fall, and
I'd never seen what a red carpet looks like with
non actors, like they're all I was like, who are
these people? There were influencers and TikTokers and YouTubers, and

(53:14):
I was like, what is going on? I don't know
who anybody is. There was no one from like Hollywood
that was there, but they were all in a Hollywood thing.

Speaker 4 (53:24):
So it was.

Speaker 7 (53:25):
It was very, very confusing for me. I've been out
of it for for a long time. I think it's scary.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
It's scary, it is a terrible story.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
But I thought you were going to start by saying,
and then Paul Starvino was attacked by a tiger.

Speaker 5 (53:38):
Thank god, every show she gets on, somebody gets attacked
by a tiger.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
Attacked by a tiger.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
I'm actually I'm really glad you mentioned the horror community
again because our fans and our dear listeners would be
so upset with us if we did not touch on
your incredible career that you've now you are just a
bona fide scream queen, which obviously started with your iconic
role Jamie Lloyd in both of the original films and

(54:08):
the remakes. But I want to know, like, what do
you love about the horror scene? What do you love
about the horror community?

Speaker 7 (54:15):
Then it's a community, I mean, writer, you know, like
I love it. It's most like there's it's the only way,
Like no matter what I do, whether the movie is
I don't know if I can like it could be
super say they still they love it because you show
up and you support it and all of the directors

(54:36):
are also fanboys.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
You know.

Speaker 7 (54:38):
You never get anyone that is involved in a horror
movie that doesn't that isn't there because of the love
of it, And I just don't find that happens when
I do other things. The community is amazing and it's
been able to afford me a normal Ironically enough, the
same thing that sort of took my childhood, you know,
and the kid actor thing has given me the freedom
of my adulthood because I do appearances and make more

(55:00):
horror movies and do podcasts and all that stuff, And
it's it's giving me the freedom to just be a
mom and a normal person and choose movies that I
want to do, you know, not not have to take
everything that comes in my way, and not have to
be in the grind of putting myself on tape and
running into auditions and doing all that stuff while trying
to be present for my family. So I think that

(55:21):
it's they've literally given me my career and my life,
that horror community, and I owe it to them. It's amazing.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
What's amazing about horror, I mean, what's the reason. One
of the main reasons is that it's one of the
few genres that can get financing independently without huge actors attached,
because every other if you're making a movie independently outside
of the studio system, the first question is like, well,
what bankable stars is in it, Whereas in horror they

(55:49):
don't care. They will just do it because it's a
good script or because it has a cool twist or whatever.
And what that means is that like blue collar working
actors can get jobs and can be like the lead
role or whatever. And it's so and you know, it's
like in a weird way, it's it's sort of like
an ensemble of community.

Speaker 7 (56:06):
You know.

Speaker 5 (56:07):
It's like they the same people keep working and want
to work together and get hired again, because it's like
we're all making a movie for its own sake. We're
not making a movie to like, you know, just make
a ton of money or whatever. It's like we have
our fan base that's built in. We can get the
financing that's built in. It's just it's a great genre.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
It's kind of the last bastion of the independent film
where it's always will always.

Speaker 5 (56:28):
If you notice all these film companies, like basically you know, Lionsgate,
like they build themselves off of horror films.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
That's how every one of them starts.

Speaker 5 (56:37):
It was like with Lionsgate, it was, you know, we
had Cabin Fever was one of their first big buys,
and then boom they hit it with the Saw franchise
that launched them.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
I was like, that launched a member artists in films
that which project. It's like that's what started them, and
then they get bought by another company.

Speaker 4 (56:51):
You know.

Speaker 5 (56:51):
It's like and it's like it just keeps happening that
these companies basically build their entire the foundation for these
huge studios off of horror.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
That's the way it goes.

Speaker 7 (57:00):
Yeah, because that's it's still making money. I mean, people
still want to go to the theater, they still want
to buy it. There's still they still want to buy
the DVD and all the merch and all of that stuff.
Like that's still a their megan last year.

Speaker 5 (57:10):
It's so huge, and it's like I just love it
because I also think that there's something to be said
for the years that like movies get under your skin
are when you're like twelve, between twelve and seventeen, and
like that's the horror movie audience, right, It's like people
who are like, wait, I can go see a movie
that I'm not supposed to see or that's going to

(57:31):
scare me. And like what happens is that you fall
in love with horror films at that age and then
it becomes a lifelong thing, and so there's always an
audience for I.

Speaker 7 (57:38):
Mean, single handedly, that's a perfect way to describe it.
I truly believe the reason why I've had such a
career in horror is because I was ten when I
did Halloween, and that was right around the time that
people were going they were ten also watching another ten
year old, so they grew up with me and continue

(57:59):
to follow and support and then see all the other
things and that I did because I didn't do a
horror movie for twenty years in between. Only Urban Legend
was one that I did in between Halloween five, which
was nineteen ninety until two thousand and nine. I hadn't
done two thousand and seven. I'm sorry, I had never
I done one horror movie. So and then all of

(58:20):
a sudden I came back for Rob Zombies and as
a different character. But it like sparked up this whole
thing again that I went, oh my god, I didn't
even know that that was still affect, that could still
be a thing. But you know, like you said, you
go to see these movies at ten, eleven, twelve thirteen,
like it makes me feel something.

Speaker 6 (58:39):
Yeah, yeah, it's Halloween five. Were you like in an
air duct? Ever?

Speaker 1 (58:44):
In an and and someone was, Okay, that's that's the
reason I don't.

Speaker 6 (58:47):
Like horror movies.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
That's what That's the other way I can go. Right.

Speaker 5 (58:51):
It can traumatize your So you never want to watch
a horror Okay, You're like, I got to get this
feeling back to the.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Rest of the money.

Speaker 7 (58:57):
It was.

Speaker 6 (58:57):
I was, I saw I had never watched a horror movie.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
I was at a slumber party at a girlfriend's house
and they put it on and I literally was like,
this is the worst thing ever.

Speaker 6 (59:06):
Why would we ever want to watch somebody like running
for their life. I was out of breath. I was like,
I can't do it. I'm I can't watch movies.

Speaker 7 (59:12):
Yeah, I would like a laundry shoot. And they it
was an air conditioning duct that they turned on its side.
And then I mean listen, back then, I wasn't even
hardest in there. I was just edged myself in there.
And they were dabbing. They were like they were like
holding my arms and lowered me into it, and then
they were stabbing with a real knife through because they

(59:33):
wanted to get the knife coming through from below my life.
I mean, it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
I don't know, I know, I know, I know. It's
your money, man, it's just sitting in the back just
like ye do it again.

Speaker 7 (59:45):
Exactly exactly. You're fine, You're fine, You're fine running in
front of moving cars. I just think remember like my
social my social worker teacher and my mom like being
so excited that I was going to be doing this
awesome scene where I was running in front of a
moving car in the middle of the night and smoke
and you know, God for I watch it now and
I'm like, oh my god, I can't even believe that

(01:00:07):
like this this was allowed. It's nuts.

Speaker 6 (01:00:10):
Totally changed live to tell about it.

Speaker 7 (01:00:15):
Yes, Yes, thank you well, Danielle.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Thank you so much for being here and sharing all
of your amazing stories. I loved all I mean, I
loved all your stories, but especially loved how much you
remembered like just fun moments from Boy Meets World.

Speaker 6 (01:00:30):
Absolutely, and it makes me, it makes my heart so warm.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
To know that, Like you said, like one out of
every ten person, ten people who come up to you
says boy meets world to you.

Speaker 7 (01:00:40):
I just I mean, you got a major mark in history,
you know. I mean, it's it's a big deal. You're
You're forever gonna be that no matter what, and that's
a beautiful thing. So I love that you guys are
doing this and much success, and that you're all still friends.
I mean, so far, so good, right, so far so good,
and I wish you I wish you guys the best too,

(01:01:00):
So keep going with this and maybe we'll do a
they'll reboot it and we can all come back and
do sled. Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
Let's yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Any of the information you have on time machines or
time travel actually.

Speaker 7 (01:01:14):
Funny, funny story. I'll leave you with before before I
before I go, just a little blip, randomly, I got
a DM someone slid into my DMS last week. I
never checked that stuff and it it was Harley Kiner himself.
Oh yeah, it's like, I I know it's been a while,

(01:01:36):
but if you would like to, you know, maybe meet up.
And he said pictures of himself.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
I was like, I know who you are.

Speaker 7 (01:01:45):
Yeah, so yeah, so that was really lovely.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
It was nice.

Speaker 6 (01:01:49):
We tried to we tried to have a reunion with you.
We wanted you to be a part of our live show.

Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
I know.

Speaker 7 (01:01:56):
I was like, if you could do it any other day,
my flight, I was like, oh my god, time earlier
in the day. But if you do another one any
other time, I'm more than happy to come and be
part of your life.

Speaker 6 (01:02:05):
We will, we would love to have We will make
it happen for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
So where are you in Texas?

Speaker 7 (01:02:11):
I'm in Austin right now. Oh great, great, nice, Yeah,
I'm out in I'm out in hill country. I'm literally
there's like longhorn cattle when you pull into my community,
just cows and dirt, all right, guys, bye bye.

Speaker 6 (01:02:30):
Oh man, so much fun.

Speaker 3 (01:02:33):
Her stories are just so funny.

Speaker 6 (01:02:36):
She said she's gonna write a book, and I'm man,
she should.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
I'm here should.

Speaker 5 (01:02:40):
She's one of the I mean, she's just a legend,
like she's just like it's it's it's such an interesting
career because she never had that giant breakout, Like she
really should have had that series, right, Like she should
have been the star of her own series for years,
but it never happened, and so she's just been a
consistently working actress.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Four it's crazy.

Speaker 6 (01:02:59):
Oh my god, crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
And she's right, we're all connected. Oh, your girlfriend was
my friend and your friend.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Man, every story was like I was living with, Like yeah,
but we all.

Speaker 6 (01:03:13):
So funny.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
Man. Can I tell you, guys, we've talked about it
now a couple of times. The story about pilots and
how testing works. Can I tell you my worst ever
Hollywood testing story?

Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (01:03:24):
Please?

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
So I was testing for an ABC pilot and there's this,
you know, group of girls that are testing, four or
five of us, and then there's another girl that's testing
and she's being kept separate from the rest of us,
and she just seems a little down. And I didn't know,
I didn't know what kept drawing me to her, but

(01:03:47):
I just felt like I wanted to talk to her.
And so at one point, after some of the other
girls had gone in, I made my way over to
where she was sitting and I said, you know, hi,
how are you? And she was kind of like a
little skittish, like why are you talking to me? And
but she started talking to me and I said, you know,
when did you have your first audition for this, and
she goes, oh, I did the pilot and they're recasting me.

Speaker 6 (01:04:15):
But they're they're not sure they want to recast me,
so they're.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
Testing me again again.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
But not only were they making her test again when
she had already booked the role and done the pilot,
but they're making her test again on the same day
all the other actresses that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
I make her test again. You already have footage of her.

Speaker 6 (01:04:35):
You have the pilot. So I was like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
I was heartbroken for her. She wasn't even from town.
She was out so then she had flown out here.
They had put her up at the Universal Hotel, the
Sheridan over there, and I said, I am so sorry,
and then it was like time for my audition. I
went in and I did my audition, and when I
walked out, she she had already been done with her
She was waiting for a car to come and pick
her up, and I said, I will take you back
to your hotel.

Speaker 6 (01:04:59):
She go in my car. We're talking.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
We really liked each other, and I said, I've never
meant it more, but like, good luck, I hope you
get this again. And as she's getting out, of my car.
Both of our phones ring, and we looked at each
other and we knew it was like Danielle said, a
lot of times, you get that answer before you're even
home or before you're even.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
To your car.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
And she and I looked at each other, and she
stepped out of my car and answered her phone and
looked back over her shoulder at me as I answered
my phone, and she walked in and I drove away
and I said it was my manager on the phone.
He's like, hey, Danielle, you didn't get it. And I said,
do you know who got it? I don't care that
I didn't get it. I just need to know is

(01:05:41):
it the girl who originally had it? And he said
she didn't book it either. Oh, And I just thought, well,
what are we doing?

Speaker 6 (01:05:53):
What are we doing with ourselves?

Speaker 5 (01:05:55):
That's so close to a story I have. I was
testing for a show and one of the guys had
was was not from l A and was outtown.

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
I knew him.

Speaker 5 (01:06:04):
We had been up against each other for at that point,
probably three or four roles. This Ben Feldman. I don't
know if you guys know Ben.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
He's a great actor.

Speaker 5 (01:06:10):
So Ben Ben, I was like, Ben, do you need
a ride to your hotel after we've tested for the show.
And he jumps in the car with me and he's
like yeah, And then we're driving and then his phone
rings and I'm like, just go ahead and get it.
Manure Adam Sandler had was producing the show, and they're like,
we need you to come back so you can meet
with Adam.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
I'm like, all right, I'll drive you back to me
with Adam. Good luck Ben all the time.

Speaker 6 (01:06:37):
Well, I love what we do.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
I love it podcasting, not acting. I podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Well, thank you all for joining us of this episode
of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us
on Pod Meets World Show on Instagram. You can send
us your emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot
com and we have merch.

Speaker 6 (01:07:03):
Merch March March March March March.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
I love it Podmeetsworldshow dot com and we'll see you
all next time. Writer send us out.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
We love you all. Pod dismissed.

Speaker 5 (01:07:17):
Podmeets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by
Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen Karp
and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production Danielle Romo,
producer and editor, Tara Sudbox producer, Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and
Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is
by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. You can follow us on

(01:07:38):
Instagram at Podmets World Show or send us an email
at Podmeats World Show at gmail dot com.