Nearly 24 years after Boy Meets World came to an end, Rider Strong and Will Friedle share details about the “grooming” they experienced from guest star Brian Peck.
During the latest episode of the Pod Meets World podcast, Strong and Friedle, as well as Danielle Fishel, spoke to family therapist Kati Morton about Peck, who appeared on Boy Meets World in the show’s fifth season. The trio discussed the “difficult subjects of grooming, childhood sexual abuse, and their effects on victims.”
According to Variety, Peck is part of the upcoming docuseries Quiet on Set, which looks into alleged abuse on multiple Nickelodeon sets.
Friedle opened up by stating he came close with Peck right when the actor joined Boy Meets World. “I didn’t really go to parties,” Friedle explained. “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.”
Will Friedle explained that Peck presented himself as a great, funny guy and Rider Strong agreed. The fellow Boy Meets World star said that he and Beck hung out all the time outside of work. However, Peck did not have any boundaries like the older actors on the set.
Danielle Fishel Also Recalled Brian Peck Hanging Out With Other Young Actors on Set
Along with Will Friedle and Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel also spoke about how Brian Peck used to hang out with all the younger actors on the set.
“All the years of having stand-ins, no one ever, do I remember, regularly went to lunch with the cast members,” Fishel pointed out. “But this person did and part of that’s because, when they arrived on set, they were extremely charming. They were very personable. They had a lot of jokes.”
Fishel explained Peck because of his many years of experience working in the entertainment industry, knew other, very successful, famous kids and young men. “He didn’t really make an effort to get to know me,” Fishel said. “He didn’t ingratiate himself as much into my life. I never heard from him again after the show ended.”
However, when Peck was first accused in 2003, he called Will Friedle and was crying. “[He was] instantly spinning it to where it wasn’t his fault, it was clearly the fault of his victim,” Friedle explained. “My instinct initially was, ‘My friend, this can’t be. It’s gotta be the other person’s fault.’ The story makes complete sense the way that he’s saying it.”
Eventually, Friedle and Strong found out Peck was convicted of a lewd act against a child and oral copulation of a person under 16. The co-stars ended up supporting Peck through the trial. They also wrote letters to the judge.
They realized that Peck groomed them to follow everything he said. “There’s an actual victim here,” Friedle said. “And he turned us against the victim to where now we’re on his team. 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.”