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Topics: Film and TV, US News, Celebrity
Lisa McLoughlin
Topics: Film and TV, US News, Celebrity
Actor Bonnie Morgan has claimed she was fired from Boy Meets World for not being 'pretty enough.'
The former child star was originally cast as Topanga when she was just 12-years-old and admitted that she felt deeply connected to the character, referencing how her parents got married in Topanga Canyon.
However, her excitement soon turned to panic when she was told by her agent that show creator, Michael Jacobs, loved her for the part but there was a 'power struggle,' and she was 'stuck in the middle of it.'
The former child star then described her first day on set as the 'weirdest day of my life' and remembered 'all the adults were short with me.'
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She went on to claim that director, David Trainer, took issue with how she said a line and was later reprimanded for laughing at co-star Ben Savage’s off-script teasing.
Savage played Cory Matthews on the long-running coming-of-age ABC sitcom, which first aired in 1993 before bowing out in 2000.
Appearing on Pod Meets World, Morgan told podcast hosts and show members Rider Strong, Will Friedle and Danielle Fishel, who was recast to play Topanga, of her first day on set: “It was the strangest day on set I had ever had.
“I went home and knew nothing.
“Now, we’re blocking, and (Ben Savage) started poking at me a little bit. He would make faces and try to break me, and it worked. At this point, I was becoming a nervous wreck.
“I couldn’t get his name, the opening line, Cory … and [director] David [Trainer] was just like, ‘Get it together.’ I’m trying to pull it together. I pulled it together in sheer fear, and Ben just kept doing this thing to crack me up.
“At one point, I had a line. It was a sweet line, and David went, ‘I want you to say it sweeter …’ So, I said it sweeter, and he said, ‘No, I want you to say it.’ And he got really close to me, ‘Like you’re saying happy birthday’”.
Despite hoping her next day on set would be better, Morgan recalled how her father answered the phone during breakfast before she left for the studio – and delivered the gut-wrenching news she’d been fired.
She remembered: “He just said, ‘What? You’re kidding. They fired you. You’re fired’. The director said that I couldn’t take direction, which was one thing I’d never been accused of.
“My agent immediately fought back on that one. It came out very quickly to my agent that the director didn’t think I was pretty enough. Literally did not think I was pretty enough.
“So, that meant that a grown man, a boss, could lie and tell me I was untalented because the fact was he didn’t think I was pretty.”
Morgan admitted she was left 'shattered' when she heard the news, saying: “I don’t know a lot of adults that could take that one.”
Despite the heartbreak of losing the role, Morgan went on to have a career, best known for playing Samara in The Ring.
Danielle Fishel went on to play the role of Topanga for seven seasons on Boy Meets World, and even reprised the character on the 2014 Disney Channel reboot series, Girl Meets World.