Rider Strong and Will Friedle discuss the alleged manipulation and grooming they endured at the hands of Peck, who was convicted of sexually abusing an unknown Nickelodeon child actor in 2004.
- Feb 20, 2024
AceShowbiz - "Boy Meets World" actors Rider Strong and Will Friedle shared more details about the alleged manipulation and grooming they faced from the show's guest star Brian Peck. The two stars discussed the matter with former castmate Danielle Fishel and family therapist Kati Morton.
"I didn't really go to parties. I didn't really do that stuff. But I was working a lot after 'Boy Meets World'," Friedle recalled his close relationship with Peck. "And this guy had so ingratiated himself into my life, I took him to three shows after 'Boy Meets World'."
He continued, "This was the type of thing where the person he presented was this great, funny guy who was really good at his job, and you wanted to hang out with … I saw him every day, hung out with him every day, talked to him every day." Strong, meanwhile, shared that he and Peck eventually hung out "all the time" despite their 20-year age gap.
Fishel added that unlike other guests, Peck, who is gay, wanted to spend as much time as he could with the main cast. "The other adults on set, who maybe could have or should have said, 'Why are you guys going to lunch with this guy?' 'Why is this guy going to Rider's house for a party?' " she said. She suggested that any adults involved were hesitant to say anything because they didn't want to be seen as a homophobic.
"There was probably a part of them that didn't say it because they were afraid it was going to be taken as homophobia, instead of, 'This is a boundary, gay or not. This is a boundary about adults and kids,' " she divulged.
Fishel added that Peck appeared to be keener in getting close with male cast members. "I also think that's important in the story of Rider and Will, about why he befriended the two of you so closely," she shared. "And I did have lunch with him a couple of times, but only because someone else would invite me … He didn't really make an effort to get to know me. He didn't ingratiate himself as much into my life. I never heard from him again after the show ended."
Friedle later recalled supporting Peck in court when he was accused of child sexual abuse in 2003. Friedle said that he agreed to do so because he felt he owed Peck that much as the latter helped him score a movie gig. "We're sitting in that courtroom on the wrong side of everything … The victim's mother turned and said, 'Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And it doesn't change what you did to my kid,' " Friedle, who defended Peck alongside Strong, said. "I just sat there wanting to die. It was like, 'What the hell am I doing here?' It was horrifying all the way around."
"We weren't told the whole story, but it doesn't change the fact that we did it," Friedle said. "I still can't get the words out to describe all of the things that I'm feeling inside of myself."
During the episode, Strong also talked about running into Peck about seven years ago at an industry party. "The story that he was telling me was nonsense but what he was letting me know was that he was with famous people who validate him and put him in a category of Hollywood royalty," he recounted. "He did that constantly when we were on the set of 'Boy Meets World' and I never saw it because it was so effortless. Here I was like at this party and I had to leave, I was so freaked the f**k out."
"There's an actual victim here. And he turned us against the victim to where now we're on his team. That's the thing where, to me, I look back at that as my ever-loving shame for this entire [thing]," he continued. "Getting taken in by somebody who's a good actor and a manipulator, I could chalk that up to being young and that's the way it is. It's awful. I'm going to use that for my growth as a human being, but when there's an actual victim involved and now I'm on the abuser's side, that's the thing I can't get over and haven't been able to get over."
The Monday, February 19 episode arrived ahead of the upcoming ID docuseries "Quiet on Set", which talks about the alleged abuse of children working in showbiz in the late '90s and early 2000s. Peck, who was convicted of sexually abusing an unknown Nickelodeon child actor in 2004 and later served 16 months behind bars, is expected to be among the show's subjects.
