Danielle Fishel revealed that her decision to set professional boundaries on the set of Girl Meets World led to pushback from producers who labeled her as difficult.
Fishel, who played Topanga Lawrence on Boy Meets World from 1993 to 2000, returned to executive produce and star in the sequel series, which aired from 2014 to 2017.
Shift in Mindset
Reflecting on her early years as a child star, Fishel noted that she initially maintained a passive approach during production to ensure she remained easy to work with.
“I had been a real go-with-the-flow, not ruffle any feathers, be so easy to work with, a consummate professional,” Fishel said on the I Choose Me with Jennie Garth podcast.
“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.”
As an adult returning to the role, Fishel began speaking up whenever set situations caused discomfort.
“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 grown-up, who had thoughts and opinions of her own, and wasn't incredibly shy about sharing them,” she stated.
She explained that she addressed issues directly with individuals rather than confronting large groups on set.
“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 shared.
Backlash from Production
However, her efforts to set clear limits were met with harsh reactions from some production personnel.
“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 recalled.
One major boundary Fishel decided to institute involved physical contact and constant hugging among cast and crew during long filming days.
“Why am I hugging so many people all the time?” Fishel recalled asking herself.
She questioned whether workplace customs like mandatory physical greetings were natural or simply ingrained habits.
“I come from a very huggy family. My family's from Malta, which is, you know, close to Italy, we're hugging people,” Fishel said.
“I remember thinking, 'Well, I hug all my family, I hug my friends. Now I just hug people at work and that's just who I am.'
It still happens.
You see people, and people go to give you a hug, and they go, 'I'm a hugger,' and you're not even really asking, like, 'Well, what if that person is not a hugger?'”
The mandatory interaction felt particularly unnecessary given the demanding production schedule on set.
“And now it's going to take twenty minutes to get out of here because you gotta hug the camera guys, and you gotta hug craft service, and you gotta hug the writers, and you gotta, you know, hug all these people,” Fishel said.
“And then we'd turn around and we'd have a read the next day at 8 a. m.
It's barely been twelve hours since we've wrapped, if that, and now you gotta hug everybody hello.”
She realized that similar physical expectations would be considered unusual in most standard corporate environments.
“And I at some point I was like, why am I hugging so many people all the time?
I'm just hugging everyone,” Fishel noted.
“And it occurred to me, does my dad hug everyone as the president of this company that he works at?
Does my dad walk in and go, 'Good morning Jill, good morning Steven?'
And I thought, no, the thought of that is comical to me in any other profession.
Could you imagine walking in and feeling like, to start the day, I've got to walk around and give my hugs?”
The situation eventually prompted her to make a firm personal choice regarding physical contact at work.
“When did I decide that I will just hug the world at all times?
Or is that just something that's like ingrained in me, that I've never actually even decided that?
And you know what, I'm going to decide now not to do that,” Fishel said.
Fishel requested alternative ways to greet her colleagues during working hours.
“I said, I would like to change this. I would like for people to not hug me,” Fishel shared.
“You can fist bump me, we can say hello, I'd love to have a conversation. How's your weekend?
Great, good to see you. When I'm done for the night, I want to look around and say, 'Bye everyone.
It's great working with you,' and I want to leave.”
She pushed back against the widespread industry narrative that cast and crew members are automatically a family.
“No, we're not,” Fishel asserted.
“You might be a chosen family member of mine, if we connect and bond that way, but you will not tell me that you are my family.
I decide that. You don't tell me who my new family is.
I decide who's important enough to me to be family.”
This shift in mindset led her to re-evaluate other long-held workplace routines.
“And so I kind of just started saying, like, I don't want to do this,” Fishel told Garth.
“Once I thought of that one, it was like, how many other decisions have I actually made that, if I just questioned myself a little bit, I might be like, 'That's weird?'
Yeah, that is weird. Why do I do that?
Why? Why do we even feel the need to do that?”
Despite internal doubts about whether she was being unreasonable, Fishel determined that preserving her personal boundaries was essential.
“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'.
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,” Fishel concluded.
She also acknowledged reflecting on whether her intervention as a producer was always appropriate.
“I did also take a step back and say, 'Am I inserting myself into a conversation about something that maybe doesn't involve me.'
Maybe, unless it's protecting a kid from something, maybe I need to mind my own business if it doesn't actually pertain to me.
So there were times when I thought, maybe I overstepped a little there, but I had a producer credit on the show,” Fishel said.
