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Mayim Bialik's Breakdown

I Felt Pressure to Be Sexy: Boy Meets World Star on Growing & Sexploitation in Hollywood

Mayim Bialik's Breakdown

Mayim Bialik

Mental Health, Society & Culture, Wellness, Health & Fitness, Comedy, Thebigbangtheory, Spirituality, Selfimprovement, Mentalhealth

4.75.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2024

⏱️ 106 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I Felt Pressure to Be Sexy: Boy Meets World Star on Growing & Sexploitation in Hollywood. Danielle Fishel aka "Topanga Lawrence" REVEALS the real reason she nearly quit BOY MEETS WORLD! She opens up in the MBB studio about facing body image issues and the pressures of objectification while she was underage, what it was like to have global pop star Lance Bass from NSYNC as her first serious boyfriend, and how chasing validation led her to perfectionism. Danielle discusses why BOY MEETS WORLD holds such a nostalgic feeling for all of us (& did you know she didn’t originally get the role of "Topanga"?!?!), how fame affected her friendships in school, her divorce, and getting into therapy after her first marriage ended. She also shares how her background in psychology led her to realize the importance of being established in who you are before you begin a healthy adult relationship. TUNE IN to MBB today to hear the full convo!

Transcript

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0:00.0

But I didn't originally get the role of Topanga. I auditioned for the role of Topanga. I did not get a callback.

0:08.0

And that's because I was not a good actor. I had no idea what it meant to be an actor that like acting

0:14.5

actually meant you pretend to be various types of people. I thought acting meant

0:20.9

you go in and are Danielle all the time.

0:25.0

My whole life, I just told the, I just told that story from the perspective of me.

0:30.0

And then all of a sudden, it hit me, this woman has gone her whole life with the opposite story.

0:37.0

The character was kind of like exactly who she was.

0:40.0

She was at this hippie child. She wanted it so badly.

0:43.0

And then at the end of the day, it was just told,

0:47.0

it's not working out for you, sorry.

0:50.0

And I gained weight toward the end of the show.

0:53.0

I remember there were talks about it,

0:55.4

called me into the office, we've gained weight.

0:57.9

But it wasn't like, call you into the office,

1:00.0

you've gained weight, so can we talk about

1:02.2

what we're gonna to do about it.

1:03.4

It was called you into the office, you've gained weight, just wanted you to know we're writing an episode

1:07.2

about it.

1:09.2

Lance Bass was my boyfriend as my senior year in high school.

1:12.1

I mean he was my first year as well, I, yes, I went to his, I flew to Mississippi

1:16.2

to before Christmas and met his family and he came to and stayed at my parents'

1:21.1

house.

...

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