Current:Home > NewsBoy Meets World's Original Topanga Actress Alleges She Was Fired for Not Being "Pretty Enough" -Capitatum
Boy Meets World's Original Topanga Actress Alleges She Was Fired for Not Being "Pretty Enough"
Oliver James Montgomery View
Date:2025-04-06 01:03:20
Before there was Danielle Fishel, there was Bonnie Morgan.
The Rings actress recently opened up for the first time about being cast and subsequently fired from Boy Meets World after one day of production, which her alleging her quick tenure on the sitcom came down to a decision from director David Trainer.
On a June 26 episode of the podcast Pod Meets World, co-hosted by Fishel and fellow Boy Meets World alumni Rider Strong and Will Friedle, Morgan explained the reason she was given for her firing, saying, "The director said I couldn't take direction, which is one thing I had never been accused of."
However, she says she soon learned that wasn't the case.
It came out very quickly to my agent that the director didn't think I was pretty enough," the contortionist and stunt performer continued. "Literally, did not think I was pretty enough. So that meant that a grown up, a man, a boss, could lie about me and tell me I was untalented because the fact was, he didn't think I was pretty."
E! News has reached out to Disney–ABC Domestic Television and Trainer for comment and has not heard back.
And Morgan—who was 12 years old when she was cast in Boy Meets World—recalled having the "weirdest day" of her life ahead of her firing, with her noting that Trainer was becoming frustrated with her acting.
"I was becoming a nervous wreck," she said. "David was just like, 'Get it together!'"
Still, Morgan remained optimistic about her job following the tough day. "I woke up the next morning to celebrate," she recalled. "I made myself blueberry pancakes, because I was so grown up, with a job now—and brought them up to my parents' bedroom to sit and eat them when the phone rang. My dad picked up the phone and he didn't wait to get off the phone. He just said, 'What? You're kidding. They fired you. You're fired.'"
Morgan continued, "I left my pancakes, ran into my room, took a blue blueberry-smelling marker and wrote, 'The worst day of my life' on my hummingbird calendar."
And the experience left her largely unable to watch Boy Meets World, with her admitting she's only seen one episode. "I saw the Barbie Mattel girl, a literal doll, as Topanga and it was like, 'Oh,'" she said. "It was the only time I would ever watch the show because I was not about torturing myself."
While Trainer has yet to comment on Morgan's claims, he previously spoke about feeling like she wasn't working in the role.
"There's sort of problems that you think you can solve," he said on Pod Meets World last year. "And then there's problems that you think you can't solve. And certainly, by working with her, she moved from one camp to the other. To the insoluble camp."
He added that he told colleagues at the time that she was a "disaster" in the role and they needed "to get rid of her."
Fishel, who ultimately went on to play Topanga in the sitcom and its sequel series Girl Meets World, has also reflected on her experience seeing Morgan on set having been cast in a minor role in the episode.
"She seemed to have trouble there. He'd give her a note telling her to change something, and she'd do it the exact same way again," she wrote in her 2014 memoir Normally This Would Be Cause for Concern. "On set the next day, she wasn't there. They had let her go, and the executive producer, Michael Jacobs, needed to find a new girl to play Topanga."
Ultimately, Morgan harbors no hard feelings toward Fishel over the role. "Yes, of course, for a long time, it was like, 'You took it from me,'" she told her on Pod Meets World. "But you were not in the corner, conniving and conspiring."
After Fishel responded in agreement, Morgan added, "The seat was open and you were ushered into it."
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News AppveryGood! (33)
Related
- New data highlights 'achievement gap' for students in the US
- 15 Affordable Hair Products That Will Help You Look Like You Just Came From the Salon
- Inter Miami vs. Chicago Fire FC live updates: Is Lionel Messi playing tonight?
- The Masked Singer Reveals This Vanderpump Rules Scandoval Star as The Diver
- Who's hosting 'Saturday Night Live' tonight? Musical guest, how to watch Dec. 14 episode
- Georgia election case defendant wants charges dropped due to alleged paperwork error
- 'Tiger King' star 'Doc' Antle banned from dealing in exotic animals for 5 years in Virginia
- A $19,000 lectern for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparks call for legislative audit
- A Mississippi company is sentenced for mislabeling cheap seafood as premium local fish
- Iran says it has agreed with Saudis to reschedule Asian Champions League soccer match after walkout
Ranking
- See you latte: Starbucks plans to cut 30% of its menu
- From cradle to casket, life for Italians changes as Catholic faith loses relevance
- Man steals car with toddler in back seat, robs bank, hits tree and dies from injuries, police say
- 3 scientists win physics Nobel for capturing very blurry glimpse of zooming electrons on the move
- What to know about Tuesday’s US House primaries to replace Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz
- Brett Favre will testify under oath in Mississippi welfare scandal civil case
- Biden suggests he has path around Congress to get more aid to Ukraine, says he plans major speech
- Jersey Shore town sues to overturn toxic waste settlement where childhood cancer cases rose
Recommendation
$73.5M beach replenishment project starts in January at Jersey Shore
Assistants' testimony could play key role in MSU sexual harassment case against Mel Tucker
$1 million prize: Maryland woman, who let Powerball machine pick her numbers, wins big
Gunman who shot and wounded 10 riders on New York City subway to be sentenced
The FTC says 'gamified' online job scams by WhatsApp and text on the rise. What to know.
Pope Francis: ‘Irresponsible’ Western Lifestyles Push the World to ‘the Breaking Point’ on Climate
Trains collide in northern Polish city, injuring 3 people, local media reports
Families of imprisoned Tunisian dissidents head to the International Criminal Court