What To Know
- Rider Strong said he feels like he’s “letting the world down” by no longer looking like his teenage self from Boy Meets World.
- On the Pod Meets World podcast, Strong and his co-hosts discussed the pressures and judgments they face regarding their appearances.
- Will Friedle and Danielle Fishel acknowledged similar struggles, with Friedle admitting ongoing discomfort with his appearance.
Rider Strong has opened up about how he experiences a lot of “fear” and “shame” over getting older, saying he feels like “I’m letting the world down.”
Strong, who played Shawn Hunter on Boy Meets World from 1998 to 2000, spoke about his feelings on the Pod Meets World podcast, which he hosts with his former co-stars Danielle Fishel and Will Friedle. The 46-year-old admitted he experiences “a constant shame and fear about how I look, and feeling like I’m letting the world down.”
The discussion came as the trio rewatched the Season 7 episode “She’s Having My Baby Back Ribs,” where Fishel and Friedle’s real-life weight gain was turned into an on-screen storyline.
“Regardless of body, people judge us for getting older,” Strong said, per People. “Just having the gall to keep aging, and not be 13, or 15, or whatever we were in their mind when they knew us the best, and liked us, and connected with our characters, and I can’t do anything about that.”
Will Friedle, Rider Strong, Ben Savage, Danielle Fishel, 1993-2000. ©ABC / Courtesy Everett Collection
Strong, who was 13 when he joined the cast of the hit coming-of-age sitcom, added, “Like I have to admit, I would rather be alive than not, so I’m not going to die young, so I’m going to keep getting older, and I’m going to keep disappointing everybody who’s ever been a fan of teenage Rider Strong.”
He also noted the “backward compliment” when people say, “‘Danielle looks so great, and she still looks so young!’ And it’s like: ‘Oh yeah, that is true, but we’re right next to her,’ and like: ‘Well, we just look our age, we just look like old dudes.’”
The actor, who also appeared in the Girl Meets World sequel series, recalled a conversation with a friend, who told him, “‘You know, the world really is upset at you for getting older.’ He’s like: ‘How dare you!’”
Friedle agreed with Strong’s sentiment, saying, per Entertainment Weekly, “I’ll never be comfortable in my skin. It just won’t happen. So I’d love to get to that point where I’m okay with how I look, but I never will. I have this idea in my head that I know is basically unattainable for somebody like me, because I work out a lot and it’s just not my body genetics. And it’s fine.”
Fishel, who most recently competed on Dancing With the Stars, noted that Friedle has “active body dysmorphia.” She explained, “He sees himself on screen, and he doesn’t see the same person that we see. And I think we all probably do to a certain extent because I know Rider does too.”