Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel highlights differences between acting as a child and adult

Former child star Danielle Fishel recalls the switch she felt in the entertainment industry after she became an adult, after having worked as a kid from 1993 until 2000.

The Boy Meets World actress was approximately 12 years old when she was hired to play Topanga Lawrence in the hit TV show.

But when she entered the Girl Meets World spinoff in 2015 at around 33, the difference was obvious.

In an appearance on the I Choose Me with Jennie Garth podcast on Tuesday (July 28), she explained what stood out to her.

“I had been a real go-with-the-flow, not ruffle any feathers, be so easy to work with, a consummate professional,” Fishel, now 45, said.

However, it was this easiness that she says led to her being treated in a way she now no longer stands for.

She explained that this ended up causing them to believe they could treat her however they wanted.

She told Garth: “And essentially what that meant is the producers felt like they could tell me to do whatever they wanted me to do, and I would never push back.”

But it was very different on set over a decade later as an adult.

She explained: “And when we got to Girl Meets World, I think I had been so used to, in my personal life, going away from that, that when we went to the set, and I was now a new person, an adult, a grownup, who had thoughts and opinions of her own, and wasn’t incredibly shy about sharing them."

However, her newfound voice didn't mean she had been 'in front of groups of people chastising somebody else’s decisions.'

She meant that she would privately give her opinion.

“It was more like, when something happened I felt uncomfortable with, I would then make time to go in and talk to the people I felt uncomfortable with and say, ‘Can I talk to you about something? This makes me feel uncomfortable,’” Fishel went on to say her new way of communicating didn't go down well.

She claimed: “And the response was, ‘Well, she’s gone crazy! Have you seen what’s going on with her? She’s gone crazy. She’s got rules and boundaries about the way we’re allowed to talk to her and to touch her and to interact with her. It’s shocking!’”

Fishel went on to say it began to impact her.

“There was a part of me that was like, ‘Am I? Am I difficult?’ And having to then decide, ‘Okay, well, I guess, if this is difficult,’” Fishel said. “The alternative doesn’t make me feel like I can live with myself, so I guess I just have to be difficult. And that has to be okay with me. I guess I am a difficult person, even though I didn’t think any of the things I was asking for or requesting was difficult.”

“Unless it’s protecting a kid from something, maybe I need to mind my own business if it doesn’t actually pertain to me,” she said she began to think. “There were times when I thought, maybe I overstepped a little there, but … I had a producer credit on the show.”