Speaker 1: Yes, the cover of seventeen. I felt like, wow, I
Speaker 1: this is the biggest I mean, it's still maybe to
Speaker 1: this day, the biggest thing I've done. Well, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's the biggest thing you've done. But I have
Speaker 1: never been on the cover of seventeen magazine. Let's be
Speaker 1: very very clear about that. Do you want Do you
Speaker 1: want to? I could probably, I could see if I
Speaker 1: have any connections, maybe I could go well, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know, because you know, it's never too late. I
Speaker 1: think maybe it's too late at some point. I don't
Speaker 1: know specifically, it is too late to be on seventeen magazine.
Speaker 1: I think actually it is. It is. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's worth trying. I don't know. I don't think. So
Speaker 1: we'll talk after, we'll talk. We'll talk after. Hello. My
Speaker 1: name is Danielle Fishel. You may know me better as
Speaker 1: to Pango Lawrence and then eventually to Pango Lawrence Matthews.
Speaker 1: I am a TV director and an actor. Hello. Everyone,
Speaker 1: it is my pleasure to welcome you all back to
Speaker 1: Off the Beat. I am your host, Brian baum Gartner,
Speaker 1: and I am thrilled and delighted today to welcome the
Speaker 1: one and only Danielle fishial a k a. To Panga
Speaker 1: Lawrence onto the podcast. Now, this is a little bit
Speaker 1: of a different episode today, all right. Danielle, she was
Speaker 1: only twelve years old when she got her start on
Speaker 1: Boy Meets World. Boy Meets World, one of the biggest
Speaker 1: sitcoms of the nineties the t G I f days
Speaker 1: for those of you who remember, or we're alive now
Speaker 1: to give you a sense of just how ahead Danielle was.
Speaker 1: By the time myself and most of the cast of
Speaker 1: the Office even made it to Hollywood, she had already
Speaker 1: done Evans seasons of the show, making her a show
Speaker 1: biz veteran before she was even twenty years old. Since then,
Speaker 1: she's gone on to star in many other projects, including
Speaker 1: the hit reboot Girl Meets World, and she's also just
Speaker 1: launched her own rewatch podcast, pod Meets World. I loved
Speaker 1: this conversation, all right. It was so interesting for me
Speaker 1: to hear about her challenges of being a child star,
Speaker 1: how much she had to endure that as an adult
Speaker 1: working in Hollywood I was barely aware of. We talk
Speaker 1: about everything from teen comedy to her on screen relationships,
Speaker 1: to her first kiss being on screen, and finally playing
Speaker 1: a grown up version of her character over a decade later.
Speaker 1: Here she is the lovely and talented Danielle Fishal, Bubble
Speaker 1: and Squeak. I love Bubble and Squiger Bubble and Squeaker
Speaker 1: Cookie every moment. Lift over from the nut before. Hello, Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to see you, Danielle. I'm so excited
Speaker 1: to see you as well. How are you? I am
Speaker 1: doing great. I I know that you are technically interviewing me,
Speaker 1: but I cannot even begin to have a conversation with
Speaker 1: you without asking what it's like to be on my
Speaker 1: favorite show, trash Truck. I love that you just did
Speaker 1: that miss reverse misdirection. See, it's your favorite show. You
Speaker 1: know you're not really demographic. You know what, I don't care.
Speaker 1: I my son, I my son. I don't even think
Speaker 1: it is quite your demographic. He just turned three, and
Speaker 1: it's a little I think I think it's I watch
Speaker 1: it with him, and he loves it. He's into it.
Speaker 1: He loves trash Truck. But then you know, it's not
Speaker 1: as like it's not like Coco Melon, where it's like
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of all kinds of crazy things going on.
Speaker 1: And so after a few episodes, he'll want to like
Speaker 1: wander Away, and I'm just riveted I get to the
Speaker 1: next episode of trash Truck like it is truly my favorite.
Speaker 1: My husband put trash Truck socks in my Christmas stocking
Speaker 1: and I wore them recently to a con. I'm literally
Speaker 1: a huge fan of trash Truck and specifically Walter. So
Speaker 1: I just have to thank you for that. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. And I can say this because I truly
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with it. I think it looks
Speaker 1: so beautiful. I think it is like the animation that
Speaker 1: they did. I mean they took let me tell you,
Speaker 1: they took a long long time to to do it.
Speaker 1: I was told they built an animation studio. I don't
Speaker 1: like the South of France or something. It's very bizarre.
Speaker 1: I know. Yeah, thank you for bringing it up. I
Speaker 1: tell everyone about it. I said, even if you don't
Speaker 1: have kids, you'll like trash Truck. It's just a great show.
Speaker 1: It's a trash Truck has the the appeal that like
Speaker 1: Bluey also has where adults just you. I mean, I've cried.
Speaker 1: I've cried a trash Truck. I've cried a Bluey. It's
Speaker 1: just it truly is it's it is beautiful, and it
Speaker 1: is so well done and so well written, and you
Speaker 1: guys are just you guys just really do a great
Speaker 1: job with it. So I just really had to thank you, well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for that. I appreciate it. Pre
Speaker 1: trash truck. Do you do you remember when we met?
Speaker 1: Do you do you remember when we met? I don't know.
Speaker 1: You don't remember when we met? No, but I have
Speaker 1: a I have a terrible memory where I'm on, I'm
Speaker 1: unpacking a lot of Why do I have a terrible
Speaker 1: memory on our own podcast? I don't know? Okay, please
Speaker 1: tell me the story. So we met in public on
Speaker 1: a stage on I Believe Live television. You and I
Speaker 1: we presented an award at the American Humane Association's Hero
Speaker 1: the Hero Dog Awards. Of course, yes, I do that.
Speaker 1: I do it every year, do you. Well, that's why
Speaker 1: you don't. That's why you don't remember. That's at least
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna say, because that's why that was my
Speaker 1: one and only. I think they kicked me off after that.
Speaker 1: I went off. So you were you weren't? No, come on,
Speaker 1: you were wonderful. I am actually I am an ambassador
Speaker 1: for the American Humane Association, and so I vote every year.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm part of the voting process for the Hero Dogs,
Speaker 1: and then I have when they've done it in person.
Speaker 1: I have presented every year, and then I've done it
Speaker 1: on zoom a couple of times too. But that is
Speaker 1: probably why. But I can't believe that. Yeah, I'm going
Speaker 1: to look up all of our pictures. But I do
Speaker 1: remember it now, of course I remember being It's it
Speaker 1: is weird how that happens when you present an award
Speaker 1: with somebody because you don't actually meet like early in
Speaker 1: the evening. You meet about three minutes before you are
Speaker 1: put on stage and you have your script and you're
Speaker 1: getting a touch up, and then it's you know, you
Speaker 1: go out and you do your thing and then you
Speaker 1: part ways and I didn't see you again. That was that.
Speaker 1: That was it. Um, So yes, a long time ago.
Speaker 1: I want to go back, though even longer to your childhood. Now.
Speaker 1: You grew up in in Mesa, Arizona. Is that right? Well,
Speaker 1: that is something I clarify all the time. So I
Speaker 1: was born in Mesa. I was born three weeks before
Speaker 1: my dad graduated college. But both my parents are native Californians.
Speaker 1: And so when my dad graduated, I was three weeks
Speaker 1: old and I moved to California. That is the amount
Speaker 1: of time I spent in Mesa. But it is on
Speaker 1: my Wikipedia page that I was born in Mesa. And
Speaker 1: so I still like every political cycle I get um
Speaker 1: like targeted campaigns like Danielle get the word out in Mesa,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I don't have a real connection to Mesa.
Speaker 1: I haven't been there since I was twenty one days old.
Speaker 1: But so I consider myself a native Californian because that
Speaker 1: is where I've lived since I was twenty one days old.
Speaker 1: That is very reasonable for you to consider yourself that.
Speaker 1: So you moved, So you moved. Then where did you
Speaker 1: move after twenty one days of life? It twenty one
Speaker 1: days of life. I made the trek to Orange County, California,
Speaker 1: and I lived there until I was ten. And then
Speaker 1: it was kind of just a stroke of real luck
Speaker 1: that at the same age, like nine ten, I decided
Speaker 1: I wanted to be an actor. By the way, I
Speaker 1: did not really know what that meant. I didn't how
Speaker 1: could you possibly know? Really, I just knew that there
Speaker 1: was a very cool girl at my school that was
Speaker 1: a couple of years older than me who came to
Speaker 1: school one day and said, guess what, I got an
Speaker 1: agent and I'm going to be a model. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to be like her, and so I went to
Speaker 1: my mom and I said, Mom, I want an agent.
Speaker 1: I want to be a model. And my mom said, Danielle,
Speaker 1: I love you, but you are very short. I am
Speaker 1: now a full grown human five one and my mom,
Speaker 1: you know, at the time, I was like nine years old.
Speaker 1: My Mom's like, models are very tall. You can't do that.
Speaker 1: So I went back to school the next day and
Speaker 1: I told the girl my mom said, I'm too short,
Speaker 1: and she said, oh, well, my agents are gonna put
Speaker 1: me on t V two. I don't think you need
Speaker 1: to be tall to be on TV. And that was
Speaker 1: all I knew. That was it. I decided that that's
Speaker 1: all I needed. I met that requirement. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be on TV. And around that same time, my dad
Speaker 1: changed jobs from working in Orange County to working up
Speaker 1: more towards l A and so we moved to Calabasas
Speaker 1: and I started auditioning. Wow, so it was just about
Speaker 1: trying to follow the cool kid. At this point, now
Speaker 1: had you done, like like like, had you done any
Speaker 1: You hadn't done anything at this point on a stage
Speaker 1: like in school, elementary school. Yes, I was the ballerina
Speaker 1: in The Wizard of Oz. Remember when like Dorothy arrives
Speaker 1: in munchkin Land. I think it had like two lines,
Speaker 1: But I basically just had my arms up in the
Speaker 1: air and walked in on my two two and did
Speaker 1: something with the Lollipop Guild and then and then wandered out.
Speaker 1: And that was the extent of my stage experience. It
Speaker 1: wasn't even that that made me go, wow, the stage
Speaker 1: life is for me. It was really just that I
Speaker 1: wanted to be like the cool you wanted to fall
Speaker 1: the cool girl. You see. I don't Do you think
Speaker 1: that there's a cultural thing about now that I know
Speaker 1: you weren't really from mas Arizona. Do you think that
Speaker 1: there's something about like growing up in southern California that
Speaker 1: it's it's more a part of more people's experience. Do
Speaker 1: you think that that's true. Possibly, it wasn't in Orange
Speaker 1: County where I at the time, where I lived in
Speaker 1: Orange County, It's not. I wasn't beach Town, Orange County.
Speaker 1: Even I was like, you know, Inland way in len
Speaker 1: youre Belinda, California, and we knew no actors. We didn't.
Speaker 1: It was there were there was nothing about that going on.
Speaker 1: Um I just knew that like the idea of auditioning
Speaker 1: and trying to do stuff on television sounded fun. But
Speaker 1: I also my mom. My parents fought against it for
Speaker 1: a full year. They were like, absolutely not, We're not
Speaker 1: putting you know, there was, especially in the early nineties,
Speaker 1: there was like a lot of you know, derogatory thoughts
Speaker 1: about child actors, like, oh, being a child actor is
Speaker 1: terrible and you you grow up to you know, Rob
Speaker 1: Banks or something like they you just there were it
Speaker 1: felt like there was no good that could come from this,
Speaker 1: and so they kept telling me no and and no,
Speaker 1: this isn't for you. And then eventually when they agreed,
Speaker 1: my mom said to my dad, look, let's just let
Speaker 1: her try it. We all know how everyone's heard about
Speaker 1: how hard this is. What are the odds she's even
Speaker 1: going to book anything? She'll try it. We will have
Speaker 1: given her the opportunity, she won't do anything, and then
Speaker 1: she'll get over it. Like that was there. Their only
Speaker 1: reason they agreed is because this is going nowhere. And um,
Speaker 1: and so then they we did the we did the
Speaker 1: thing you had to do back then, which when there
Speaker 1: was no digital way of communicating with agents. My mom
Speaker 1: read a book that was like how to Get your
Speaker 1: Kid into Acting for Dummies. And in the in the
Speaker 1: book it said, here is a list of agencies, and
Speaker 1: they're mailing addresses. And my mom took pictures of me
Speaker 1: on our regular film pictures of me, and then printed
Speaker 1: them out and mailed copies of them with a letter
Speaker 1: about me, my age and why. You know what I said,
Speaker 1: I I wanted to do this, and and here are
Speaker 1: some yes that she wrote and sent them to these agencies.
Speaker 1: And I think we sent them to maybe ten agents,
Speaker 1: and we heard back from maybe six of them, and
Speaker 1: they were interested in meeting with me. It was pretty good,
Speaker 1: pretty good, and so we Yeah, my mom took some
Speaker 1: great pictures. You know, I was photogenic and my mom
Speaker 1: was a great photographer. And so we went to those meetings.
Speaker 1: And I remember being a little girl sitting in these
Speaker 1: meetings with agents and hearing them, you know, talk about
Speaker 1: my experience, and it was like nothing unless you count
Speaker 1: this to two role I had in in elementary school
Speaker 1: and um, I ended up signing with an agent. I
Speaker 1: signed with Kelman Arletta and the first thing she said
Speaker 1: was I'm going to put you in a commercial workshop class.
Speaker 1: And so I got put into like an acting class
Speaker 1: for commercials and um, and then I started auditioning from there.
Speaker 1: So you're I'm doing the math here quickly. It's difficult
Speaker 1: for me. You're ten then roughly right? Ten? Yes? Yes?
Speaker 1: So this is this is your your ten years old
Speaker 1: and you start this process and at this point you
Speaker 1: don't know, you don't know anything. And by the way,
Speaker 1: I have to say for people who don't understand, taking
Speaker 1: a photo on your cameras and you know, your home
Speaker 1: camera is not usually how this is done. You usually
Speaker 1: go and you get a professional photographer. It's called a
Speaker 1: head shot, and you have that done. You don't put
Speaker 1: a five seven that mom took uh in the mail
Speaker 1: and expect to hear anything back. So there was clearly
Speaker 1: something that people saw. So okay, so your ten is
Speaker 1: this fun? Then this class that you take about auditioning
Speaker 1: for commercials? Yeah, it was incredibly fun. I you know,
Speaker 1: I was a very bubbly, fast talking ten year old girl,
Speaker 1: and when you're looking for ten year old girls and
Speaker 1: commercials that is like kind of what you're looking for,
Speaker 1: and so I think there was something. I think what
Speaker 1: people saw in me was that without like my instinct
Speaker 1: was perfect for ten year old girl commercials. And so
Speaker 1: the class was very fun. I remember I have it
Speaker 1: on video somewhere and it's one of my favorite videos.
Speaker 1: It's me and another little boy and they were having
Speaker 1: us pretend to be doing a Skittles commercial. And you know,
Speaker 1: both of us are up there in front of the
Speaker 1: camera and it's his turn to pretend that he has
Speaker 1: the skittles, and the person next to him is like,
Speaker 1: can I have a skittle? And and the boys supposed
Speaker 1: to go Skittles, Skittles, you want some? And the boy
Speaker 1: is going Skittles, Skittles, you want And you can hear
Speaker 1: the teacher go okay, let's do it again, but with
Speaker 1: a lot of energy. You know, we want to sell skittles.
Speaker 1: Skittles are the greatest. You know, imagine you're in They
Speaker 1: want to know that you love skittles. And he's doing
Speaker 1: it again, and he does it very much the same way.
Speaker 1: And then it's my turn to be the person with
Speaker 1: the skittles, and he hands me the Skittles and I
Speaker 1: go Skittles Skittles and he literally jumps out of his skin,
Speaker 1: like what the heck was that? I literally startled him
Speaker 1: with my enthusiasm. So yeah, for me, it was it
Speaker 1: was a blast. Right. So this is like, uh, this
Speaker 1: is like a I don't know, kids play soccer or
Speaker 1: you know they go to music class or you know,
Speaker 1: dance ballet, whatever. This is. This is like your after
Speaker 1: school activity and you're having fun with it. That's exactly right.
Speaker 1: And I loved every minute of it. And then I
Speaker 1: got an audition and it was for It was my
Speaker 1: first audition ever and it was for Mattel and it was,
Speaker 1: UM this Mattel commercial where these dolls there were three
Speaker 1: dolls and one of them UM had braids, and you
Speaker 1: got fake scissors and you could cut her hair and
Speaker 1: and you pulled from the back of her head this
Speaker 1: area where the braids were connected, and that's how it
Speaker 1: looked like you were cutting at the braids just got shorter,
Speaker 1: and then another one another. It was It's very creepy.
Speaker 1: I have a I have a screen recording of the commercial.
Speaker 1: UM A little girl who has an ice cream cone.
Speaker 1: When you put the ice cream cone to her mouth.
Speaker 1: It makes like an ice cream ring around her lips,
Speaker 1: and and then the doll um. The third doll was
Speaker 1: you push a button in the top of her head
Speaker 1: and two front teeth come out of her gums. She
Speaker 1: gets her first teeth. So I get this audition and
Speaker 1: I'm very excited for it, and I go in. My
Speaker 1: mom takes me. You know, it's a long drive in traffic.
Speaker 1: Do I'm doing my homework in the car on the
Speaker 1: way there. And we get into the audition and my
Speaker 1: mom's biggest concern, She's told me, now my biggest Her
Speaker 1: biggest concern with me going into acting was that there
Speaker 1: was going to be a lot of rejection, and she
Speaker 1: didn't want the rejection to beat me down as a child.
Speaker 1: She didn't want me to feel like it was my
Speaker 1: fault if I didn't get something, or like, well, what
Speaker 1: was wrong with me? And so she she would talk
Speaker 1: to me about the fact that it was probably that
Speaker 1: I was going to get told no a lot often.
Speaker 1: So on the way there, you know, she's saying, you know,
Speaker 1: Remembers is your first audition. It's fun, like she's trying
Speaker 1: to make everything light and I'm like, yeah, but I'm nervous.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's going to be. And I
Speaker 1: go in and I do the audition. I come out
Speaker 1: and my mom goes, how did it go? And I go, great,
Speaker 1: I got it and she goes, what did did they
Speaker 1: They tell you you got it? And I go no,
Speaker 1: I just I just I feel it. I just I
Speaker 1: nailed it. I got it. And she's like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: We get in my car and she goes, no, you know, Danielle,
Speaker 1: this isn't how this works. You you were going to
Speaker 1: go in for so many auditions and you're gonna you're
Speaker 1: gonna be told no way more than you're gonna be
Speaker 1: told yes. And this is your first audition. Because I
Speaker 1: was like okay. I was like, but Mama, you know
Speaker 1: I got it. She's like, oh man. So we go
Speaker 1: home and the next day I get a call back.
Speaker 1: She's like, wow, Danielle, guess what. You get a callback?
Speaker 1: You have to they want to see you again. And
Speaker 1: I go see, I told you, And she's like, well,
Speaker 1: callback isn't booking it, but yes, this is a good sign.
Speaker 1: You're you're getting closer. So I go in, I do
Speaker 1: the audition again. I come out. My mom goes, how
Speaker 1: did it go? And I go, great, I got it,
Speaker 1: and she's like, okay again, Hope, I know you're closer,
Speaker 1: and you know you did last yesterday And I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, yesterday you told me I wasn't I didn't
Speaker 1: get it, and today I got a call back. She's like,
Speaker 1: that's true, but still just trying to like temper my expectations.
Speaker 1: And then I did book the commercial, and my mom
Speaker 1: was like, great, Now what do I do? Now? I
Speaker 1: know I have to like convince you that just because
Speaker 1: you got this one doesn't mean you're gonna get all
Speaker 1: of them. And of course, you know, I I ended
Speaker 1: up getting my share of rejection. But I just think
Speaker 1: it's funny that I walked out with so much confidence.
Speaker 1: And then I was like, I told you that is uh,
Speaker 1: that is unusual. That is that it does not usually
Speaker 1: work that way. No, you had no experience. You take
Speaker 1: this class and start booking commercials. At what point does
Speaker 1: your agent think, well maybe she should audition. Well, she's
Speaker 1: got to have a lot of confidence that your first
Speaker 1: job you booked, I know how this thing works, So
Speaker 1: that's she's got to feel good about that, and so
Speaker 1: she must fairly quickly start submitting you for actual television roles, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: yes she does. She starts submitting me for guest starring
Speaker 1: roles on different shows, and I book uh an episode
Speaker 1: of Harry and the Henderson But yeah, it was a
Speaker 1: featured a featured extra. Basically, I didn't say anything. And
Speaker 1: then she submits me to I auditioned for full House,
Speaker 1: and I book full House and I played the role
Speaker 1: of Jennifer two and Jennifer two um was only Jennifer
Speaker 1: two because her friend that was there with her was
Speaker 1: also Jennifer. And so the line in the show was
Speaker 1: that the girl says, Hi, I'm Jennifer, and I said, Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Jennifer too, not the number two. But also, and
Speaker 1: as you could probably tell from the way I just
Speaker 1: did that line, Jennifer two was not that much different
Speaker 1: than just regular Danielle that had been doing all of
Speaker 1: the commercials. So again, I know nothing of what acting
Speaker 1: actually is. My experience thus far from ten to twelve
Speaker 1: was that if you just go in and say somebody
Speaker 1: else's words exactly the way you would say them, you
Speaker 1: will eventually book a job. Some at some point in time,
Speaker 1: someone's going to be looking for just who you are,
Speaker 1: and so those were the rules I had booked before
Speaker 1: I got the audition for Boy Meats World. That's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you about this. You know, I've talked
Speaker 1: to a lot of people about how difficult it is
Speaker 1: to just step in as a guest star to anything. Now,
Speaker 1: are you intimidated about this or you just like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: I've got this and you're totally relaxed about it. I
Speaker 1: was pretty relaxed about it. I think I just had
Speaker 1: so much confidence. I have no idea why I had
Speaker 1: so much confidence, but I really I think I remember
Speaker 1: being told in my commercial workshop class and in my
Speaker 1: auditions that I was directionable, like I took direction well,
Speaker 1: I listened and I could respond. And I was that
Speaker 1: way as a child with my parents, and I was
Speaker 1: that way as a student. I was kind of just yeah,
Speaker 1: if you tell me what I need to do, I'll
Speaker 1: get it done. And so I was really excited to
Speaker 1: walk into the set a full house, and they made
Speaker 1: it very easy too. They first of all incredible directors.
Speaker 1: Rich Correll directed my first episode, and I think joel's
Speaker 1: Wick directed my second episode that I did. And you know,
Speaker 1: these are people who've done now at this point thousands
Speaker 1: of episodes of TV, and UM, you know, they got it.
Speaker 1: They were working on a kid's show. They knew how
Speaker 1: to be funny and and um, how to talk to
Speaker 1: us and how to make us comfortable. I think the
Speaker 1: first thing Rich Carrell said to me was, you know,
Speaker 1: I said, Hi, I'm Danielle, and I extended my hand
Speaker 1: to shake his hand, and he said, hi, I'm rich
Speaker 1: that's my name. But I also say that to all
Speaker 1: the ladies. UM, and I you know, I knew he
Speaker 1: was making a joke, and and it was just like
Speaker 1: I felt right at ease, and and then no one
Speaker 1: made me feel like there was I was going to
Speaker 1: do something wrong or I was going to screw anything up.
Speaker 1: It was it was a very fun collaborative environment. And
Speaker 1: I mean I walked around and on tape night took
Speaker 1: pictures with every cast member. I've got all the my
Speaker 1: with my mom's camera. That same camera that that got
Speaker 1: me in the door with the agents is now taking
Speaker 1: pictures with John Stamos and Bob Saggett and Candice Camera
Speaker 1: and Jody Sweeten. So it was a it was so fun.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like this experience helped you get an
Speaker 1: audition for Boy Meets World or was that just again,
Speaker 1: just another audition that your your agents submitted you on.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it helped me get the audition.
Speaker 1: It may have being on Full House, but it definitely
Speaker 1: didn't help me in the audition because I went in
Speaker 1: an auditioned for the role of Tapanga and I did
Speaker 1: not even get a call back. And then the next
Speaker 1: day I got an audition for a different role on
Speaker 1: the same show, Boy Meets World, but for a character
Speaker 1: who I don't even think had a name. She had
Speaker 1: two lines, and I booked that one, and I then
Speaker 1: showed up on the set of Boy Meats World and
Speaker 1: I got to see who they did cast as to Panga,
Speaker 1: and I was watching the director work with her, and
Speaker 1: the director was David Trainer, another legendary TV director, And
Speaker 1: it was my very first acting lesson. It was the
Speaker 1: moment I can remember the moment when the light bulb
Speaker 1: went off in my head. Oh, I could say things
Speaker 1: differently than how I would say them. When I read
Speaker 1: that this character to Panga is a flower child, a
Speaker 1: slow speaking flower child, I should pay attention to that,
Speaker 1: and I should adjust the way I speak to try
Speaker 1: and match maybe what they're looking for instead of just
Speaker 1: say ing it just like me. And I saw David
Speaker 1: Trainer working with this girl they had cast as to Panga,
Speaker 1: and I had that feeling you get when you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I want to try again. And I of course knew
Speaker 1: that that was an unprofessional thing to do, and so
Speaker 1: of course I did not do that. I just let
Speaker 1: them work together. And the end of the day on Friday,
Speaker 1: before I was going home, uh that one of the
Speaker 1: producers came up to my mom and I and said, UM,
Speaker 1: we'd like you and the other girl that you're here
Speaker 1: with that have a couple of lines. We'd like you
Speaker 1: to read a scene for the producers. And the scene
Speaker 1: they wanted us to read was a to Panga scene,
Speaker 1: and I suddenly realized that they were possibly recasting to
Speaker 1: Panga and now I had a second chance to do it.
Speaker 1: And Marla sockle Off, another fantastic actress who has gone
Speaker 1: on to have a wonderful career and is also now
Speaker 1: a director. She and I were the two girls auditioning
Speaker 1: again for this part, and she went in first, and
Speaker 1: I was sitting outside the door, and my mom and
Speaker 1: I were sitting there next to each other, and we
Speaker 1: could hear Marla and the producers and the casting director
Speaker 1: just laughing and talking and having a great time. And
Speaker 1: then they walked out and Sally Steiner, the casting director,
Speaker 1: followed behind her mom and said, I need every phone
Speaker 1: number for you, because you know, this is a Friday
Speaker 1: night and you're gonna if if she gets it, she's
Speaker 1: gonna have to come back on Monday. I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to get in touch with you over the weekend. And
Speaker 1: this is before cell phones or computers or so. I
Speaker 1: need your page or number, I need your agents number,
Speaker 1: I need your facts number. Give me all the numbers.
Speaker 1: And I remember watching all of that right before I
Speaker 1: go in for my audition, like that must have gone
Speaker 1: very well. That does not make me feel very confident
Speaker 1: walking into this. And then I went in next and
Speaker 1: I did my audition, and I walked out, and nobody
Speaker 1: followed behind me. Nobody asked us for phone numbers, nobody
Speaker 1: needed to get in touch with us. And I walked
Speaker 1: out of the office. My mom and I got to
Speaker 1: the car, and the minute I sat down in the car,
Speaker 1: I burst into tears and I said, I didn't get it.
Speaker 1: I had a second opportunity to get this, this bigger part,
Speaker 1: and I'm the drive home. My mom says, you know,
Speaker 1: we have to call your dad because at this point
Speaker 1: I was supposed to be home two hours later or
Speaker 1: two hours earlier. My dad didn't know where we were.
Speaker 1: And thankfully we had a big Zach Morris car phone,
Speaker 1: you know the big Yeah, they connected in the car.
Speaker 1: It cost like sixty dollars a minute or something. I
Speaker 1: plugged into the lighter is the most expensive giant piece
Speaker 1: of equipment. And I called my dad and my dad said,
Speaker 1: you know where are you? Am worried about you guys,
Speaker 1: And he said, okay, well there was this girl and
Speaker 1: she's playing te Peanga and they asked me to audition.
Speaker 1: My Dad's like, what hold on, hold on, I'm getting
Speaker 1: a call waiting, and then he comes back and he says,
Speaker 1: that was someone named Sally Steiner and she told you
Speaker 1: to come back on Monday as to Panga. And I
Speaker 1: just screamed at the top of my lungs and looked
Speaker 1: at my mom and was like my mom then started screaming,
Speaker 1: and we said we'll see you sitting into my dad.
Speaker 1: We'll see. It was a zinging and I hung up
Speaker 1: the phone. Then I showed up on Monday and I
Speaker 1: was to Panga. Did you hear an explanation about the
Speaker 1: Marla situation? And then you feeling like that they were
Speaker 1: going to hire her or were they just making her
Speaker 1: feel well? I no, I don't think they were making
Speaker 1: her feel good. She had she was the first audition,
Speaker 1: and so I think that. And and Marla lived up
Speaker 1: north at the time, and that weekend she was driving
Speaker 1: back up north to be with her family. And so
Speaker 1: unlike my family who lived in Calabasas and wasn't going anywhere,
Speaker 1: they knew how to get in touch with my family.
Speaker 1: I think there was a little bit of fear that
Speaker 1: if Marla was the person who booked it, she's out
Speaker 1: of town, how do we find her? Um? And so
Speaker 1: I think it was you know, part part of that
Speaker 1: was information I didn't have at the time, right, Wow,
Speaker 1: So okay, so you you get this role to pay.
Speaker 1: It's supposed to be one episode. That was it. It
Speaker 1: was just going to be the one episode. But it
Speaker 1: was also written in a way where it was um
Speaker 1: left open enough at the end that there was still
Speaker 1: that feeling of but she could come back. It was
Speaker 1: it was like it was only going to be one
Speaker 1: episode but also potentially recurring. Okay, no, yeah, one of
Speaker 1: those one of the one of those that generally they're
Speaker 1: just trying to get somebody to do it and then
Speaker 1: it never sees the light of day again I'm familiar with.
Speaker 1: And you never come back. You never come back again. Um,
Speaker 1: do you start coming back immediately? No? Not immediately. I
Speaker 1: do that first episode and uh, it goes well by
Speaker 1: the time the week is over. It was a It
Speaker 1: was a bit of a roller coaster week because on
Speaker 1: day one I I didn't deliver the amazing performance that
Speaker 1: Michael Jacobs wanted, and he told me at the end
Speaker 1: of the producer session, in front of the cast and
Speaker 1: crew and everyone, he said, Danielle, I'm going to save
Speaker 1: all of your notes for the end, because if I
Speaker 1: made everybody sit here for all of the notes I
Speaker 1: have for you, nobody would be able to go home.
Speaker 1: So I will save all of your notes. But what
Speaker 1: I will say is that if you don't show up
Speaker 1: tomorrow doing this entirely differently, you will also not be
Speaker 1: doing this role and cut the road twitters. I immediately
Speaker 1: welled up my eyes. I had tears just like, I
Speaker 1: don't even know how I tears didn't fall. I don't
Speaker 1: remember them falling, but maybe they did, but I just
Speaker 1: remember feeling like, oh my gosh. And then you know,
Speaker 1: Michael's kind of famous for his very elaborate note sessions,
Speaker 1: and so then I had to sit there for over
Speaker 1: an hour while he gave everyone else notes, and I
Speaker 1: just had to sit there quietly and waiting, waiting, like wondering,
Speaker 1: what are my notes going to be? What did I do?
Speaker 1: How am I this bad? Um? If I'm so bad?
Speaker 1: Why did I get the role? Like? Why? You know?
Speaker 1: I don't understand. And then afterward, Michael sat my mom
Speaker 1: and I down in the Matthews family kitchen and went
Speaker 1: through every single one of my lines and what he
Speaker 1: was looking for and how I did it wrong and
Speaker 1: what I needed to change. And my mom and I
Speaker 1: went home that night, and my poor mother, she stayed
Speaker 1: up with me until like three or four o'clock in
Speaker 1: the morning, working with me, just getting me, you know,
Speaker 1: reminding me of the things Michael said he wanted and
Speaker 1: how I could do that and do it again but
Speaker 1: slower and do it again but you know, calm er,
Speaker 1: just whatever the notes were, and I went back then
Speaker 1: the next day Tuesday, and rehearsed all day again with
Speaker 1: David Trainer, who was wonderful and very supportive and made
Speaker 1: me feel very safe. And we then did the network
Speaker 1: run through that night, and Michael stood up and said,
Speaker 1: I'd like everyone to stand up and join me, and
Speaker 1: giving Danielle a round of you know, a standing ovation,
Speaker 1: a round of applause. You have worked so hard, you
Speaker 1: did exactly what I asked of you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: You know, this was wonderful, and now sit down. And
Speaker 1: then I got to participate in a regular note session.
Speaker 1: And then the next day we started taping UM and
Speaker 1: we did that episode, and no, I did not come
Speaker 1: back then immediately. I wasn't in like the next several
Speaker 1: but I was back probably probably within three to four
Speaker 1: episodes after that. I came back for another one UM.
Speaker 1: And you could tell now is when they were trying
Speaker 1: to start playing around with maybe the idea that Topango
Speaker 1: was going to be some sort of love interest for
Speaker 1: Corey and and you could tell that this was something
Speaker 1: they were going to try to work and see if
Speaker 1: they could make me a recurring character. Wow, that's that's
Speaker 1: so amazing. Of course, I go back to your mom
Speaker 1: staying up with you until three o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: when it wasn't even what she had initially wanted for
Speaker 1: you from the beginning. But I obviously at this point
Speaker 1: she's very supportive and just wanting, you know, the best
Speaker 1: for you. Um. You then go on, obviously to be
Speaker 1: a huge part of the show. You become a I mean,
Speaker 1: I think massive Star is not overstating what happens to
Speaker 1: you over the next several years. When did you realize
Speaker 1: I think it might be. I think it might be,
Speaker 1: but I mean, look this this let me be clear, Okay,
Speaker 1: this show was not my specific demographic at that time
Speaker 1: in my life. Yet I was very aware, very aware
Speaker 1: of of of you and what was going on on
Speaker 1: that show. Even at that point in time, when did
Speaker 1: you realize that the show was going to be uh
Speaker 1: so big and that this was going to change your life?
Speaker 1: You know, It's funny, we talked about it all the
Speaker 1: time now that there wasn't a moment while we were
Speaker 1: doing the show ever where we felt like we were
Speaker 1: a hit for some reason. Now we knew that the
Speaker 1: T G I F block we were on ABC Timetime
Speaker 1: Friday nights, there was that two hour block from eight
Speaker 1: pm to ten pm, and Family Matters started the block
Speaker 1: and then it rolled into Boy Meets World and Sabrina
Speaker 1: the Teenage which was on after that, and you know,
Speaker 1: like we knew that that section, that eight to ten
Speaker 1: pm slot was successful, but Boy Meets World was not
Speaker 1: like a mass of hit at the time. It actually
Speaker 1: became more of a massive hit after it went off
Speaker 1: the air. We were on for seven years, but every
Speaker 1: year we had that feeling of, oh boy, we're on
Speaker 1: the bubble. We're we're really on the bubble. I I
Speaker 1: we don't know if we're gonna get picked up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we didn't know if we were going to get picked up.
Speaker 1: From season to season, there were there were talks that
Speaker 1: it was never that it wasn't going to get picked up,
Speaker 1: and then we were always shocked when it did. And
Speaker 1: we like even ratings wise, I mean, now we look
Speaker 1: at the ratings and we think, wow, what must that
Speaker 1: be like to have a twenty four share? Like whoa crazy?
Speaker 1: But back then we were like not even the first
Speaker 1: or second or even third thing going on that night,
Speaker 1: Like we you know, there were much bigger things going on.
Speaker 1: So I don't think while we were on the show,
Speaker 1: I felt like the show was a hit. Also, the
Speaker 1: lack of social media meant we had no real feedback,
Speaker 1: Like I think, to a certain extent, I felt like
Speaker 1: we did a show for our parents and grandparents, Like
Speaker 1: we put on this big production for our grandparents to watch,
Speaker 1: and maybe some other people saw it too, but I
Speaker 1: had no idea how many, and I had no idea
Speaker 1: what they thought of it. Like, I didn't know whether
Speaker 1: people liked it or anything. I just had no real feedback. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you start you know, you're on seventeen, You're on
Speaker 1: the cover of seventeen, your teen People, Hottest Under twenty one.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is happening. It's so interesting. You know,
Speaker 1: you start out your twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old and
Speaker 1: you're not you know, maybe even cognizant of big media
Speaker 1: in general, and the social media doesn't exist at that point.
Speaker 1: That makes some sense to me, But you have to
Speaker 1: know at a certain point. Yeah, I think I also
Speaker 1: thought though, with like you're talking about teen magazines and
Speaker 1: you're right, doing the cover of seventeen was a very
Speaker 1: big deal. I think I definitely felt when I got that,
Speaker 1: I was like, WHOA really they're gonna let be on
Speaker 1: the cover of that. I do remember feeling like that
Speaker 1: was a moment of I've made it. But also I
Speaker 1: think I, you know, you had publicists, and you knew
Speaker 1: that it was someone's job to like go out after
Speaker 1: these things and get these things for you. I think
Speaker 1: I always just thought, well, like, I think I recognized
Speaker 1: that the business aspect of it, more so than feeling like, well,
Speaker 1: they're they're agreeing to let me be on the cover
Speaker 1: because the show really is that big of a hit.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I thought about it that way,
Speaker 1: but I do know for sure that, yes, the cover
Speaker 1: of seventeen, I felt like, wow, I this is the
Speaker 1: biggest I mean, it's still maybe to this day, the
Speaker 1: biggest thing I've done. Well, I don't think it's the
Speaker 1: biggest thing you've done. But I have never been on
Speaker 1: the cover of seventeen magazine. Let's be very very clear
Speaker 1: about that. Do you want Do you want to? I
Speaker 1: could probably, I could see if I have any connections,
Speaker 1: maybe I could go, well, yeah, I don't, because you know,
Speaker 1: it's never too late. I mean, maybe it's too late
Speaker 1: at some point. I don't know specifically, it is too
Speaker 1: late to be on seventeen magazine. I think actually it is,
Speaker 1: it is. I don't think it's worth trying. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't think. So we'll talk after, we'll talking, We'll
Speaker 1: talk after you're you know, you're playing a kid living
Speaker 1: a fairly normal life. You at this point are not.
Speaker 1: You're I want you to talk a little bit to
Speaker 1: people about your experience. So you're going to school now,
Speaker 1: I assume largely on set, So you have what you
Speaker 1: have one teacher or did you guys have a teacher
Speaker 1: for for everybody who was, you know, of of school age.
Speaker 1: At the very beginning of the show, they had one teacher,
Speaker 1: a fantastic guy named David Holmes, who is a true
Speaker 1: genius and was very well versed in a lot of
Speaker 1: different subjects. And that first season we were doing school
Speaker 1: in a trailer. We weren't even on the stage. It
Speaker 1: was a trailer that they had converted to a schoolroom,
Speaker 1: and we had little cubbies of the trailer that were
Speaker 1: for each of us and David would you know, sit
Speaker 1: and work with one student for a while and then
Speaker 1: move on to the next students, see where they were,
Speaker 1: see how they were working on their work. But I
Speaker 1: for as much as I loved acting and I loved
Speaker 1: being on set, school not the educational aspect of it
Speaker 1: so much, but the social life of school was very
Speaker 1: important to me. I didn't want to miss out on it.
Speaker 1: And at this point, you know, in that first season,
Speaker 1: I'm still just a recurring character, so I was regularly
Speaker 1: going back to my regular school, and even then after
Speaker 1: I became a series regular on Boy Meats World, every
Speaker 1: hiatus week I went back to my regular high school,
Speaker 1: which meant I had to be to the day on
Speaker 1: the subject material with the rest of the students at
Speaker 1: my school. Because for a lot of kids doing you know,
Speaker 1: TV shows, you do the entire school year on set,
Speaker 1: and then if you follow a week or two behind,
Speaker 1: it isn't the end of the world, because on that
Speaker 1: hiatus week you're just going to do extra school and
Speaker 1: you'll catch up. But because I made it a little
Speaker 1: difficult on myself by wanting to go back, I had
Speaker 1: to always be caught up exactly where my the rest
Speaker 1: of my school was um but that gave me the
Speaker 1: best of both worlds. I got to be an actor
Speaker 1: on a set and living that life, but I also
Speaker 1: got to go to every football game at my high
Speaker 1: school and every school dance, and you know, I got
Speaker 1: to experience right notes to boys in the hallway like
Speaker 1: I also got that experience. That's important. Um, how how
Speaker 1: are you treated at school? You know, you're now a
Speaker 1: TV star going back to school? How was that? Yeah? Well,
Speaker 1: unlike when I was in Orange County and no one
Speaker 1: around us were actors, I was now living in Calabasas,
Speaker 1: which a lot of famous people and a lot of
Speaker 1: actors and actor children are going are living in Calabasas,
Speaker 1: And so I was not the only actor at my
Speaker 1: junior high. I was not the only actor at my
Speaker 1: high school. I may have been the maybe for at
Speaker 1: least a period of time, maybe the most regularly working actor,
Speaker 1: but I was definitely not the only one. And so
Speaker 1: in junior high I was made fun of a little
Speaker 1: bit because I had just moved from Orange County right
Speaker 1: before the beginning of sixth grade, and everyone else had
Speaker 1: come from elementary schools where they knew each other, and
Speaker 1: so I was definitely the odd person out. And it
Speaker 1: was very rare to have to be. You know, one
Speaker 1: a kid is here for three weeks at a time
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, They're gone for two weeks,
Speaker 1: and then they popped back in, and so I was
Speaker 1: made fun of them, and people called me princess, like
Speaker 1: they thought I was giving special I was getting special
Speaker 1: treatment because I was able to leave for two weeks. Um.
Speaker 1: They didn't understand that I was also like really working
Speaker 1: during that time and still doing school. So junior high
Speaker 1: was rough. But then, you know, by the time I
Speaker 1: made it to high school, it was all that same
Speaker 1: group of people from junior high. I had really well
Speaker 1: established myself there. I had a great core group of
Speaker 1: girlfriends are still my best friends to this day. And
Speaker 1: moving into high school, I think I was mostly just
Speaker 1: treated kind of like everybody else. It wasn't as um
Speaker 1: awkward as you would think it is. That's cool. Um.
Speaker 1: A couple of things I want to talk about, Tapanga.
Speaker 1: Your relationship with Corey played by Ben Savage. How did
Speaker 1: you navigate that with likely at that point little relationship
Speaker 1: experience outside of that. How was that for you or
Speaker 1: did you feel some responsibility or nervousness sort of going
Speaker 1: through that maybe for the first time, you know, on
Speaker 1: television in front of people. Yeah, I don't know that
Speaker 1: there's ever been a time where I've been more nervous
Speaker 1: than that first week of Boy Meets World, that one
Speaker 1: we talked about where I got the audition, I had
Speaker 1: to kiss Ben and I had never kissed anyone in
Speaker 1: my entire life. And it was made even more difficult
Speaker 1: by the fact that Tapanga was so self assured and
Speaker 1: to Panga was so confident in her decision to kiss Corey.
Speaker 1: The episode was that Corey had straightened his hair and
Speaker 1: he looked goofy, and Topanga said, wouldn't it you know,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it be interesting if I kissed you right now,
Speaker 1: so that you always remembered that your first kissed was
Speaker 1: when you thought you looked your worst. And so she
Speaker 1: was so confident, and inside Danielle was like, what, not
Speaker 1: only had I never kissed anybody before, but I had
Speaker 1: certainly never kissed anybody in front of a live studio
Speaker 1: audience that's also housing my grandparents and my parents, like
Speaker 1: everyone is there, and you know, we we we didn't
Speaker 1: rehearse the actual kiss throughout the week because we were twelve,
Speaker 1: and I don't think anyone felt real comfortable with like, yeah,
Speaker 1: just all day today, you guys are just gonna kiss
Speaker 1: against this locker for as many times as we're gonna
Speaker 1: rehearse it. It It was kind of like, we'll save it.
Speaker 1: We'll save it. Also, they wanted that nervous energy because
Speaker 1: it is supposed to be Corey's first kiss, and so
Speaker 1: by the time we got to tape night, I thought
Speaker 1: for sure there was no way I was getting out
Speaker 1: of that without paying my pants. Like I there was
Speaker 1: just I was so nervous. And we recently watched the
Speaker 1: episode again for our rewatch podcast, and I was shocked
Speaker 1: at how not nervous I came across. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't normally give myself a lot
Speaker 1: of props, especially not in the acting department, because as
Speaker 1: you've heard, I didn't know anything I was doing. But
Speaker 1: I somehow was not physically shaking, and I somehow had
Speaker 1: a real steady voice to myself. And I looked at
Speaker 1: was watching it and I was like, I believe that
Speaker 1: I'm confident here, and I wasn't. I was nervous and
Speaker 1: Ben was nervous. We were both very nervous um and
Speaker 1: then you know, you you do it and you get
Speaker 1: the first one out of the way, and then you're
Speaker 1: a little bit like okay. That that that that didn't
Speaker 1: nothing happen, the place didn't burn down. I feel okay,
Speaker 1: And then you do it a couple more times, and
Speaker 1: then after that, you know, by the time I came back,
Speaker 1: there weren't kissing scenes again for a long time. It
Speaker 1: wasn't I don't remember when our next kiss was, but
Speaker 1: it's not like by the time I came back, I
Speaker 1: was suddenly his girlfriend and we were kissing all the time.
Speaker 1: So I don't remember when the next time was. But
Speaker 1: I do remember for sure feeling like by season two
Speaker 1: and season three, like I had just started having crushes
Speaker 1: on boys. I didn't know anything about relationships, but to
Speaker 1: Pango was very worldly and knew a lot, and so
Speaker 1: I think the biggest challenge for me was just pretending
Speaker 1: I was confident. Uh. William Daniels, who I have long
Speaker 1: admired as an actor, played Mr Freeney the principal. Who Yeah,
Speaker 1: Mr Feenie, Mr Feenie, Sorry, Mr Feenie. Um, it's Dwight Freeney,
Speaker 1: football player. This is Mr Feenie. Sorry, Right, How was
Speaker 1: it working with him? Were you aware at that time?
Speaker 1: I mean, he is at this point one two Emmys
Speaker 1: for saying Elsewhere, he as an established actor with kind
Speaker 1: of an incredible career at this point, Well, did you
Speaker 1: feel lucky to be able to work with him? I mean,
Speaker 1: I would like nothing more than to say that twelve
Speaker 1: year old Danielle felt lucky to work with Bill Daniels.
Speaker 1: But twelve year old Danielle was so not cultured or
Speaker 1: really even aware. I don't think I had ever even
Speaker 1: heard of st Elsewhere, much less been aware that Bill
Speaker 1: had won two Emmys for it. I did know, however,
Speaker 1: that he was the voice of Kit from Night Writer. Yes,
Speaker 1: and I remember when he you know, we've talked about
Speaker 1: it now a couple of times that we all thought
Speaker 1: Bill was from England. We all thought he was British,
Speaker 1: and um, and he he is not. And we I remember, Um.
Speaker 1: We all remember hearing Bill leaned forward and talked to
Speaker 1: Michael Jacobs during notes, and he'd leaned forward and say
Speaker 1: well Michael, and we would go we just heard it.
Speaker 1: We heard Kit. We heard Kit from Night Writer say Michael,
Speaker 1: and it was like it felt like a cheat that
Speaker 1: we got, like we asked him to say a line
Speaker 1: from the show and it was really just him talking
Speaker 1: to our executive producer. But it was you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't know that, but I can't say that. I I
Speaker 1: wish now I look back and I think of all
Speaker 1: the stories of all the actors we worked with, all
Speaker 1: the adults, and the history they had, and I think, man,
Speaker 1: how did I not seize that opportunity more to talk
Speaker 1: to them about their origin stories and how they got
Speaker 1: started and really you know, asked them all these questions.
Speaker 1: But I was you know, when you're twelve, you're just
Speaker 1: like really laser focused on your own life and what's
Speaker 1: going on, you know, and then the minute and the
Speaker 1: minute you're not in the scene anymore, they're like, now
Speaker 1: you got to go to school, like you you have
Speaker 1: your your day is so different than when you are
Speaker 1: an adult actor on a show. Yeah, that's true. I
Speaker 1: do have to share with you that was my my
Speaker 1: first celebrity sighting as in my life. Uh. I was
Speaker 1: a kid from Georgia and I came to you Reversal
Speaker 1: Studios and did the tour and on the back lot
Speaker 1: I saw Kit and that to me was the coolest
Speaker 1: thing ever. That was It was like, oh, that's kid,
Speaker 1: that's the night rhetoric. That was that car, that was
Speaker 1: that was my first celebrity siding. That was your first
Speaker 1: celebrity siding, was Kit. That's amazing. Bill is in. Bill
Speaker 1: is incredible. What a career. We just uh, we talked
Speaker 1: to him recently. We interviewed him for our podcast and
Speaker 1: we finally got to ask all the questions we wish
Speaker 1: we had even thought to ask when we were kids,
Speaker 1: and just his experience and his knowledge, and you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things we really appreciated about working with
Speaker 1: him was that he never he didn't ever like correct
Speaker 1: us or give us advice really, which you'd think, well,
Speaker 1: that sounds like a bad thing, like, wouldn't you want
Speaker 1: his advice, and we would have been open to it,
Speaker 1: of course. But Bill made us feel very much like
Speaker 1: equals with him. He he he treated us regardless of
Speaker 1: the fact that we were twelve and probably obnoxious sometimes
Speaker 1: and goofing off and not taking it nearly as seriously
Speaker 1: as he was. He really respected our process and really
Speaker 1: let he thought of us as his equal, and we
Speaker 1: felt that way with him. We felt very respected by him,
Speaker 1: which is not something you you always feel as a kid.
Speaker 1: You know. No, that's that's awesome. I'm so glad to
Speaker 1: hear that about him. Um, is it true you took
Speaker 1: Lance Bass to your prom? I sure did. Lance Bass
Speaker 1: is Uh was my first I guess I would say,
Speaker 1: my first real serious boyfriend. And I was seventeen and
Speaker 1: I brought him to my senior prom and it was
Speaker 1: so much fun. We had a great time. And uh,
Speaker 1: I mean, Lance and I are still very Lance and
Speaker 1: I are very close. We actually just we just texted
Speaker 1: last night. His unfortunately, his grandmother passed away, and we
Speaker 1: were talking about memories we have of her, and he said,
Speaker 1: I don't know. He said, I wish I had more pictures.
Speaker 1: And I went down into my garage and I pulled
Speaker 1: out a bunch of pictures from the time that I
Speaker 1: went to Mississippi to meet Lance's family, and I had
Speaker 1: all these fantastic stick pictures of us with his grandmother,
Speaker 1: And so I sent him to him last night. Oh
Speaker 1: that's so nice. Oh I love that. Yeah, we have
Speaker 1: a great relationship. Oh that's great. I'm not sure why
Speaker 1: a romantic relationship didn't work out. I know, it's a
Speaker 1: mystery to me as well. I've gotten to know him
Speaker 1: a little bit as well. He's he's a he's a
Speaker 1: great guy. Um. He is, and so is his husband,
Speaker 1: and and they're fantastic two babies that I just got
Speaker 1: to meet at the end of May, and they're they're
Speaker 1: a wonderful family. So the show ends after seven years,
Speaker 1: and you you took an acting break. I sure did,
Speaker 1: and that was on purpose. Well, I I would say
Speaker 1: it was on purpose, and also then not on purpose.
Speaker 1: The hardest part of going from being a child actor
Speaker 1: to being an adult actor is one having people take
Speaker 1: you seriously and not wanting them you know, they want
Speaker 1: to pigeonhole you. But also too, you have to strike
Speaker 1: while the iron is hot. And that's a thing I've
Speaker 1: really learned in the entertainment industry, and I unfortunately just
Speaker 1: didn't understand that, didn't know that that was necessarily as
Speaker 1: true as it is. I by the time Boy Meats
Speaker 1: World ended, I had definitely taken it for granted. Definitely
Speaker 1: season six, definitely season seven. I was over it. It
Speaker 1: was you. We had been on it for a long time.
Speaker 1: I had been in school the entire time, and again
Speaker 1: I took school, you know, not seriously so much from
Speaker 1: the education standpoint, but I was going back all the time,
Speaker 1: and I just felt like I wanted freedom. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to get away. I was now going to be
Speaker 1: nineteen years old when the show ended, and I didn't
Speaker 1: have to go to college. I didn't have plans to
Speaker 1: go to college. I just wanted a break, and so
Speaker 1: I took that break. And then by the time I
Speaker 1: was ready to get back into it, nobody cared to
Speaker 1: have me. And I wasn't auditioning for a lot of things.
Speaker 1: And when I was auditioning, I wasn't right for him.
Speaker 1: I wasn't good for them. I wasn't necessarily taking great
Speaker 1: care of myself. Um. It was just like and then
Speaker 1: I found myself and I was like, wow, Okay, now
Speaker 1: I'm twenty four. I haven't worked basically at all since
Speaker 1: Boin Meets World ended. What am I gonna do? Like?
Speaker 1: What what else am I good at? Am I good
Speaker 1: at anything else? I didn't go to college. I haven't
Speaker 1: ever thought of what else I was going to do.
Speaker 1: And then I took a couple of, like, you know,
Speaker 1: just crappy jobs that I needed because I needed the money,
Speaker 1: not because they were projects that I loved or characters
Speaker 1: that I loved. And then I said, Okay, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to do this anymore. I'm to type a to
Speaker 1: allow my future to be in the hand ends of
Speaker 1: a bunch of people who only want me when when
Speaker 1: the iron is hot. And so I'm going to go
Speaker 1: to school. And so I decided then to go try
Speaker 1: and enroll in college. And um I went to I
Speaker 1: got my degree from cal State Fullerton in psychology. I
Speaker 1: decided I was going to be a marriage and family therapist.
Speaker 1: And I then applied for my master's degree at Chapman University.
Speaker 1: And and so I started school at seven. I graduated
Speaker 1: at thirty one, and as I had just gotten my
Speaker 1: acceptance from Chapman University for marriage and Family therapy, Michael
Speaker 1: Jacobs called me and said, we're doing Girl Meets World
Speaker 1: and I want you to come back for it. And
Speaker 1: I was like, we're doing what what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: And he explained to me what his idea was for
Speaker 1: Girl Meets World, and that to Panga was going to
Speaker 1: be a mom. And and I, at this point now
Speaker 1: had spent four years being a really great student. How
Speaker 1: I was in it for the education because I wanted
Speaker 1: to be there. It was something I was really passionate about.
Speaker 1: And I was like, Michael, I just got accepted for
Speaker 1: my master's degree, like can I can I do night classes?
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, night classes in college meant like four pm,
Speaker 1: and there was no way I was going to be
Speaker 1: able to be offset and back in Orange County by
Speaker 1: four pm. And so I had to make the decision
Speaker 1: about whether or not I was gonna get my masters
Speaker 1: or if I was going to do Girl Meets World.
Speaker 1: And I realized I could get my master's at any time,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't do Girl Meets World any time. And
Speaker 1: I decided to go back and do Girl Meets World.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting you make the decision to go back.
Speaker 1: I mean you're like Frasier, right, I mean you're playing
Speaker 1: like in terms of like longevity of playing the same
Speaker 1: character over time. Um, did you did you like going
Speaker 1: back and re exploring who to Pega had had become
Speaker 1: in a later in life? I did. I actually really
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. For one thing, I had known about myself
Speaker 1: that I always wanted to be a mother. And I've
Speaker 1: also known that I've always been a very maternal person,
Speaker 1: whether that's that's not necessarily even just toward children. I
Speaker 1: just have what people would describe as being a maternal
Speaker 1: energy about them. I care about the people around me.
Speaker 1: I tend to take care of the people around me,
Speaker 1: and um I the idea that I was going to
Speaker 1: get to Tapanga had been so so stink and smart
Speaker 1: and wanted to be a lawyer, and and also she
Speaker 1: was able to maintain a marriage and have children. I
Speaker 1: was really excited to see how Topanga was going to
Speaker 1: pull all that off and how she was going to
Speaker 1: navigate it, and how motherhood had maybe changed her in
Speaker 1: ways and had she softened in certain areas. Uh and
Speaker 1: so yeah, it was really exciting to me. But I
Speaker 1: think ultimately even more exciting than that was the feeling
Speaker 1: I had of being able to go back, to go
Speaker 1: back to a set and to see a new generation
Speaker 1: of twelve year olds do the exact same thing I
Speaker 1: had done, except this time they were going to have
Speaker 1: of me. They were going to have me there to
Speaker 1: be like, I've been there with you. If you need anything,
Speaker 1: I'm here for you. I know how hard this is.
Speaker 1: If you want somebody to talk to, I'm here for you.
Speaker 1: I was so excited about developing those relationships with our
Speaker 1: young cast, and it felt very like a gift to
Speaker 1: my younger self that I would have, you know, This
Speaker 1: is nothing against the adults we had on our show.
Speaker 1: They had a totally they had their own experiences going on.
Speaker 1: But I would have loved someone to say to say,
Speaker 1: I've been in your shoes. If you need if you
Speaker 1: need anything, come to me. And so I was really
Speaker 1: excited about that and developing those relationships with the kids.
Speaker 1: And I feel like I, you know, hopefully they would
Speaker 1: say I did a good job of that. That's amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm trying to think in the history of
Speaker 1: television this, it hasn't happened very often. Nothing is occurring
Speaker 1: to me right now. I don't want to say never.
Speaker 1: But the idea of of being a young actress, a
Speaker 1: child star if you will, and playing this role and
Speaker 1: then having the opportunity so many years later to come
Speaker 1: back and revisit it from the adult side. And also, yeah,
Speaker 1: like you said, being that didn't even occur to me,
Speaker 1: being there as a mentor to these young actors and
Speaker 1: actresses that that you had that experience. People you don't understand.
Speaker 1: We touched on it very briefly, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: to highlight it. These young actors, their days are so
Speaker 1: difficult because you know what Danielle was talking about before.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're not on set rehearsing or shooting something,
Speaker 1: you've got to be in school. So like you're always somewhere.
Speaker 1: And even though there are thankfully, you know, Screen Actors
Speaker 1: Guild requirements for how many hours they can work, they
Speaker 1: still are doing school and having homework and all of
Speaker 1: the rest of it. It's really difficult. And then there's
Speaker 1: all the other stuff that goes along with it that
Speaker 1: like when you're not in school and you're not rehearsing,
Speaker 1: you have a wardrobe fitting. When you're not in a
Speaker 1: wardrobe fitting and it's tape day, you've got hair and makeup.
Speaker 1: And then when it's not that, you've also got pressed.
Speaker 1: And so as a kid, every second of your day
Speaker 1: is occupied with something. And like you said, there are
Speaker 1: the Screen Actors Guild you know rules, which are nine
Speaker 1: and a half or ten and a half hours a day,
Speaker 1: depending on how old the child is. There's a moment where,
Speaker 1: you know, there's year where it jumps up to ten
Speaker 1: and a half hours a day. But that's not including
Speaker 1: your drive to work or your drive home from work.
Speaker 1: That's not including homework you may have or getting your
Speaker 1: script and needing to read your script for the next day. Um,
Speaker 1: look over your lines, memorize whatever you have coming up,
Speaker 1: like it's a lot. And then when we did Girl
Speaker 1: Meets World, there obviously was social media, and there is
Speaker 1: now immediate feedback, and you're reading things about what people
Speaker 1: think about you or what people think about your show.
Speaker 1: And you're doing a legacy show where people are comparing
Speaker 1: your show to the old show and here's why it's
Speaker 1: not as good as the old show, and here's why
Speaker 1: this person is not as great it is that person
Speaker 1: and they're reading it on their little devices. And and I,
Speaker 1: thankfully was what tried very hard. And there were other
Speaker 1: people who did it too. Of course they had set
Speaker 1: teachers and they had people their parents, But I was
Speaker 1: very much trying to remind them of like staying present,
Speaker 1: remembering what's important, understanding that just because someone says something
Speaker 1: on the Internet, it doesn't make it true, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, just trying to navigate all of that. I
Speaker 1: was really glad to be a voice that had kind
Speaker 1: of experienced it minus the social media. Yeah, that's insane.
Speaker 1: Can I truly can't imagine that to be twelve thirteen, fourteen,
Speaker 1: Get your first phone, being on social media and hearing
Speaker 1: what people might say horrible. Yeah, um, you start directing? Uh,
Speaker 1: in Girl Meets World, you like directing? I love it.
Speaker 1: I mean, talk about such a gift. So I started.
Speaker 1: I directed my first episode in season two. I did
Speaker 1: one that season and I of did it. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that was definitely you know, it's my first time ever
Speaker 1: doing that. There were some hiccups and it was rocky,
Speaker 1: but I loved it again, mostly because of the relationships
Speaker 1: I was able to build working with the kids, And
Speaker 1: so then I got to direct three more in season
Speaker 1: three and uh. We ended the show in two thousand seventeen,
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen, two thousand seventeen, and I then spent
Speaker 1: two full years going into meetings, shadowing people, begging someone
Speaker 1: to take me seriously as a director. Everyone thought it
Speaker 1: was most likely a vanity title you got to direct
Speaker 1: on your own show. It was a home game. Let's
Speaker 1: call it a home game. No one's gonna let you
Speaker 1: fail at a home game, and I desperately tried to
Speaker 1: prove myself. I had been on a you know, sitcom
Speaker 1: set since I was twelve years old or eleven years old,
Speaker 1: and I was still shadowing, and anybody would take a
Speaker 1: meeting with me, I would take a meeting. And then
Speaker 1: after two years, I went in for a meeting and
Speaker 1: um with Mark Reisman and he was acting a Disney
Speaker 1: Channel show called I Mean he was the executive producer
Speaker 1: of a Disney Channel show called Sydney to the Max.
Speaker 1: And I had a wonderful meeting with him, but he
Speaker 1: was very nervous and he said the same thing to
Speaker 1: me every other executive said. He said, Danielle, listen, I
Speaker 1: believe you. I believe that you can do it. But
Speaker 1: this show was my baby, and I I just want
Speaker 1: you know, if it were up to me, I would
Speaker 1: just hand it off to a very experienced director and
Speaker 1: he or she would direct every episode. And and you know,
Speaker 1: it just makes me very nervous. I'll give you a
Speaker 1: chance to direct, but probably not in the first thirteen
Speaker 1: or maybe not even in the first season. And I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: if there's anything I can do to allay your fears,
Speaker 1: let me know. And we talked for two hours, and
Speaker 1: then when I left, he did his due diligence and
Speaker 1: he called Michael Jacobs and he called Frank Pace, who
Speaker 1: was our upm and he said, tell me about Danielle
Speaker 1: as a director, and both of them, thankfully, UH gave
Speaker 1: him their word that I was legit and that I
Speaker 1: knew what I was doing and that he could trust me.
Speaker 1: And I got a call a couple of days later
Speaker 1: from Disney Channel saying Mark really liked you. He load
Speaker 1: up on you. He's going to trust you, and he's
Speaker 1: going to give you three episodes in his first thirteen
Speaker 1: and I was I was shocked, and Uh. I ended
Speaker 1: up directing like eleven or twelve episodes of Sitting to
Speaker 1: the Max over the three seasons they were on. And
Speaker 1: now I've done almost thirty episodes of multi camera sitcoms.
Speaker 1: That's thank you, and I love you, and you love it,
Speaker 1: I do. I love it the same way I knew
Speaker 1: going back to Girl Meets World was going to make
Speaker 1: me feel like I was giving back to a younger
Speaker 1: version of myself. That is exactly what directing children's TV
Speaker 1: feels like to me. I remember so distinctly the directors
Speaker 1: that we had on Boy Meets World when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, and that you know, David Trayner gave me
Speaker 1: my my first acting lesson. David Traynor taught me how
Speaker 1: to open up for camera. All of that was an
Speaker 1: education from those directors. And some people aren't as lucky
Speaker 1: to work with such amazing, kind, warm directors. I was lucky,
Speaker 1: but I knew I wanted to be that same person
Speaker 1: for the next generation of kids. And so now I
Speaker 1: get to show them Disney one oh one or Acting
Speaker 1: one oh one or Camera one oh one, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, it just me It means the world to me.
Speaker 1: Do you see your younger self in specifically any of
Speaker 1: the young actresses that you're working with? Oh? Man, I mean,
Speaker 1: there are parts of me in all of them, but
Speaker 1: they're all, you know, unique and different. I think, first
Speaker 1: of all, every all of the young actresses I worked
Speaker 1: with are all so much better actors than I was.
Speaker 1: So in that sense, no, because they're all luckily, they're
Speaker 1: all much better instinctually than than I was. At the
Speaker 1: beginning I needed a lot of work. They do not.
Speaker 1: But I definitely like Ava Kulker, who I worked with
Speaker 1: on Girl Meets World and then I also got to
Speaker 1: direct in Sydney to the Max. Ava Kolker is a
Speaker 1: really great comedic actress. She's very she just gets it,
Speaker 1: you know. She you can. You can tell her what
Speaker 1: something means and she'll change the reading of it, or
Speaker 1: you'll say that was really funny. But just do something different.
Speaker 1: You don't have to tell her what you want done differently.
Speaker 1: She'll just come up with something different. Um. And and
Speaker 1: she she loves being in front of an audience. I
Speaker 1: look at her and I think, yeah, I was a
Speaker 1: little bit of a ham like that too, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And then I you know Ruth Riggie who was on
Speaker 1: Sydney the Max, also like I see in her. She
Speaker 1: she lives up north, she lives in Santa Cruz and
Speaker 1: being with her family and going back to her regular
Speaker 1: life was really important to her. And I go that
Speaker 1: was That's how I was too. So I see bits
Speaker 1: of myself in all of them, and it feels good.
Speaker 1: It feels nice to like form those relationships. And I
Speaker 1: make sure to let all of them know that, like
Speaker 1: after the show ends and after I'm done being your
Speaker 1: director here, my door is still always open and and
Speaker 1: there because there will be other hiccups. I also made
Speaker 1: the jump then from being a kid to being an adult,
Speaker 1: and I know, I know what that entails. And there
Speaker 1: will be times where you're going to want to talk
Speaker 1: to somebody and just know you can always reach out.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Yeah, it's it's crazy to me. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you started doing essentially a regular role on
Speaker 1: television at age twelve. You know, for me it was
Speaker 1: I was thirty two, you know, I did theater for
Speaker 1: so long. It's uh, you know, it's just it's fascinating
Speaker 1: to me to hear that inside, the inside story of
Speaker 1: that and sort of knowing from the outside intellectually when
Speaker 1: you know, I've worked with kids over the years, how
Speaker 1: difficult that is, you know, hearing from you your experience
Speaker 1: going through it is just it's really interesting to me.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate you coming and talking about that. You
Speaker 1: have a a new podcast that you have launched, rewatch
Speaker 1: Pod meets World the third. So we've got Boy, We've
Speaker 1: got Girl, and now we have pod. Are you having
Speaker 1: a good time doing that? We're having a great time
Speaker 1: doing it. None of us, we all so it's myself, Wright,
Speaker 1: Strong and Wilfred l And none of us have watched
Speaker 1: the show recently, and Writer has actually rarely seen ever
Speaker 1: an episode. He's only seen a handful of episodes ever
Speaker 1: in his life. Will saw them all when they aired
Speaker 1: in the nineties, and then he's seen a handful of
Speaker 1: them again recently. I also watched them, maybe most them
Speaker 1: when they were on in the nineties, but then I've
Speaker 1: never seen them again. So we're watching it really for
Speaker 1: the first time, and we're talking about how the show
Speaker 1: one feels differently to us than we remembered it feeling,
Speaker 1: and part of that is exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: The way we perceived the show as twelve year olds
Speaker 1: is obviously totally different than the way we perceived the
Speaker 1: show now as adults, and we're finding that it's amazing
Speaker 1: how much more we're the scenes were picking up on
Speaker 1: and the moments were loving are all of the adult actors,
Speaker 1: and we're like, I didn't even remember this scene existed.
Speaker 1: We were so focused on whether or not we were
Speaker 1: getting laughs in the classroom, we weren't actually aware of
Speaker 1: how incredible William Russ was as Alan Matthews, you know,
Speaker 1: delivering this father son monologue about life like we didn't
Speaker 1: even pay We probably didn't even read that part of
Speaker 1: the script. But now as adults and as parents, we're
Speaker 1: seeing it through those eyes, and so it has been
Speaker 1: really fun. That's awesome. William Daniels years old and just
Speaker 1: came on your podcast. I just I love that, isn't
Speaker 1: it great? Um? Danielle, thank you so much for coming
Speaker 1: on and talking to me about this good luck. With
Speaker 1: the directing. I'm so happy for you that you have
Speaker 1: have found that and that you're loving that, and with
Speaker 1: the podcast. Thank you for for going back and sharing
Speaker 1: your your unique perspective. I appreciate it so much. Thank you, Brian.
Speaker 1: This was really just a true pleasure. And I hope
Speaker 1: we get to present another award at the Hero Dog
Speaker 1: Awards or or somewhere, but I I will be following
Speaker 1: along on all of your adventures and I am such
Speaker 1: a fan of yours. So thank you so much. You're
Speaker 1: the best. Danielle, thank you so much. And someday, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I'll come. I'll come be Walter, for your
Speaker 1: for your child. Everyone go check out pod meets World now.
Speaker 1: I promise you you will not regret it. To all
Speaker 1: of you out there. We're gonna be back this Thursday
Speaker 1: with another special off the Beat sports guest, and then
Speaker 1: of course we'll be back next week. I know I
Speaker 1: say this every week, but we have a very we
Speaker 1: got a good one. We got a good one next week,
Speaker 1: so stay tuned for that. We'll see you on Thursday
Speaker 1: and again next Tuesday. Until then, well be well. Everybody
Speaker 1: Off the Beat is hosted an executive produced by me
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our producers are
Speaker 1: Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our
Speaker 1: talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is
Speaker 1: Sammy Cat. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak performed by
Speaker 1: my great friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed
Speaker 1: by Seth Olandski