Maitland Ward, who played Rachel McGuire on the popular ABC sitcom Boy Meets World, has spoken out against Disney for how they treated her during her time on the show.
Ward joined the cast in season 6 as a friend and roommate of Topanga, Angela, Jack and Eric, and stayed until the show’s finale.
In her new memoir Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me from Hollywood, Ward reveals some of the disturbing incidents she faced on the ABC sitcom, such as being forced to wear lingerie for male producers. Ward also criticized Disney for their sexist and oppressive attitude towards women actors in an interview with Fox News Digital
Read her comments below –
Even though there were issues with Disney and production and my character and relationships, I do remember it as an innocent time, though, with a cast that was very much family. And I mean that in all possible ways because it’s like with family. You fight with family, you have issues, but you still were connected. And I think a producer from the show told me no matter what, after all this time, we’re always going to be connected in this way. You can’t change that. And I think that’s special and good…The issues mainly came from Disney, and that it wasn’t so much with the cast members. It was more the whole Disney machine back then, especially back in the late ’90s and early 2000s when girls were treated like meat. You had to be virginal, but you also had to be sexual.
Ward isn’t the only one to have shared her discomfort about working on the show. On their podcast Pod Meets World, Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong shared their discomfort with a storyline that involved their characters Topanga and Corey considering losing their virginity on prom night.
Strong said he was “upset” that the show ignored the issue of safe sex and even confronted Boy Meets World co-creator Michael Jacobs about it. Fishel also said she felt “very uncomfortable” during the filming of the episode for similar reasons.
The Boy Meets World actors are not alone in their struggles with the show and the industry. Ward notes that Disney had a reputation for exploiting young actors, especially women, in those days.
Disney and Nickelodeon often objectified female characters for no narrative purpose. Moreover, Hollywood was still far from the Me-Too movement at that time, and women in the business still face more harassment and abuse from powerful figures.
Ward recalls some good moments from her Boy Meets World days, but she also points out the unfair treatment of women that was more common back then. Hollywood still needs to improve, but actors like Ward speaking up helps a lot.
About Boys Meets World
Boy Meets World is an American coming-of-age sitcom created by Michael Jacobs and April Kelly that aired on ABC for seven seasons between September 1993 and May 2000. The series centers on Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and his friends and family, as he progresses from childhood to adulthood.
Boy Meets World experienced strong ratings for the teenage demographic throughout its seven seasons, and it was later syndicated on Disney Channel. Several cast members were nominated for Young Artist Awards. Savage and Fishel reprised their roles as series regulars in the spin-off Girl Meets World, which aired on Disney Channel from 2014 to 2017, and depicted Cory and Topanga as married parents.
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