‘Boy Meets World’ stars actors Rider Strong and Will Friedle opened up about their personal trauma surrounding Brian Peck’s alleged grooming and manipulation that they claim they experienced during and after his time on the show.
via Page Six:
The men — along with former castmate Danielle Fishel — discussed “the difficult subjects of grooming, childhood sexual abuse and their effects on victims” with family therapist Kati Morton on “Pod Meets World,” per the official description of the latest iHeart podcast episode.
Four years after “Boy Meets World” ended, Peck, now 63, was convicted of sexually abusing an unknown Nickelodeon child actor in 2004. Subsequently, he served 16 months behind bars after being charged with eight counts of sexual abuse.
His crimes are expected to be explored in the upcoming ID docuseries, “Quiet on Set,” which uncovers the alleged abuse of children working in showbiz in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
Before Peck’s misdeeds came to light, though, he allegedly infiltrated the lives of the “Boy Meets World” stars — in inappropriate ways — during and after he appeared on the show in Season 5, which aired from October 1997 until May 1998.
“I didn’t really go to parties. I didn’t really do that stuff. But I was working a lot after ‘Boy Meets World,’ and this guy had so ingratiated himself into my life, I took him to three shows after ‘Boy Meets World,’” Friedle, 47, said, recalling the close relationship he ultimately developed with Peck.
“This was the type of thing where the person he presented was this great, funny guy who was really good at his job, and you wanted to hang out with … I saw him every day, hung out with him every day, talked to him every day.”
Strong, 44, said he and Peck eventually hung out “all the time,” despite a 20-year age gap.
Fishel, 42, for her part, remembered Peck wanting to spend as much time as he could with the main cast — which she said was different than most “Boy Meets World” guest stars.
“The other adults on set, who maybe could have or should have said, ‘Why are you guys going to lunch with this guy?’ ‘Why is this guy going to Rider’s house for a party?’” she said, surmising that any adults involved were hesitant to say anything because Peck is gay and they didn’t want to be seen as homophobic.
“There was probably a part of them that didn’t say it because they were afraid it was going to be taken as homophobia, instead of, ‘This is a boundary, gay or not. This is a boundary about adults and kids.’”
Fishel clarified that none of the young cast members cared about Peck’s sexuality, while acknowledging elsewhere that he seemed to take a keener interest in male stars.
“I also think that’s important in the story of Rider and Will, about why he befriended the two of you so closely,” she said.
“And I did have lunch with him a couple of times, but only because someone else would invite me … He didn’t really make an effort to get to know me. He didn’t ingratiate himself as much into my life. I never heard from him again after the show ended.”
When Peck was accused of child sexual abuse in 2003, he asked Friedle and Strong to support him in court — which they agreed to. Friedle felt he owed Peck that much as the latter helped him score a movie gig when he was skipping auditions due to debilitating anxiety.
“We’re sitting in that courtroom on the wrong side of everything … The victim’s mother turned and said, ‘Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And it doesn’t change what you did to my kid,’” Friedle said.
“I just sat there wanting to die. It was like, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ It was horrifying all the way around.”
Still, they wrote letters to the judge defending Peck’s character.
“We weren’t told the whole story, but it doesn’t change the fact that we did it,” Friedle said. “I still can’t get the words out to describe all of the things that I’m feeling inside of myself.”
Strong said he ran into Peck about seven years ago at an industry party, an encounter that left him rattled.
“The story that he was telling me was nonsense but what he was letting me know was that he was with famous people who validate him and put him in a category of Hollywood royalty,” he said, describing Peck as a serial name-dropper.
“He did that constantly when we were on the set of ‘Boy Meets World’ and I never saw it because it was so effortless. Here I was like at this party and I had to leave, I was so freaked the f—k out.”
Friedle hasn’t seen Peck in about two decades, but is still processing the regret he has over defending the sex offender against his victim.
“There’s an actual victim here. And he turned us against the victim to where now we’re on his team. That’s the thing where, to me, I look back at that as my ever-loving shame for this entire [thing],” he said.
“Getting taken in by somebody who’s a good actor and a manipulator, I could chalk that up to being young and that’s the way it is. It’s awful. I’m going to use that for my growth as a human being, but when there’s an actual victim involved and now I’m on the abuser’s side, that’s the thing I can’t get over and haven’t been able to get over.”
Hollywood can be a dark place.
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