Will Friedle's Career Almost Ended After Boy Meets World, Here's Why
Will Friedle is understood for starring within the '90s sitcom Boy Meets World as Cory Matthew's fascinating, idiot giant brother Eric—a shiftless formative years, who ceaselessly wandered looking for meaning all the way through the show. Back then, Friedle was a '90s youngster heartthrob, with hair destined for greatness, and all of it appeared like the easiest jump-start to the younger actor's career. But all wasn't what it seemed in the back of the scenes.
It was printed by Will Friedle himself that he had deserted appearing altogether when Boy Meets World wrapped in 2000, but why? The answer: anxiousness. The actor has since spread out about how his struggles with psychological health modified the trajectory of his career fully.
Will Friedle Almost Wasn't Cast In Boy Meets World
It's laborious to consider Eric Matthews being played by some other actor other than Will Friedle on Boy Meets World but, all over the preliminary casting process— that was almost the case. Friedle opened up to Entertainment Tonight in 2022, saying he nearly missed on playing the beloved character because he was sick.
"When they were casting for the show originally, it was called The Untitled Ben Savage Project," Friedle defined. "And they were casting for an older brother and I got sick and couldn't go."
According to Friedle, the function went to every other actor. The actor (who has now not been recognized) went on to movie the pilot episode along Ben Savage, who performed Eric's younger brother, Cory Matthews. Soon after, the role was sooner or later given to Friedle— and the rationale was once as a result of a small, yet vital detail: top.
"The actor was fine. There was nothing wrong with him. He was a fine actor, but he wasn't tall enough," Friedle explained to ET. "He was the same size as Ben, and they knew Ben was going to grow, and they wanted an older brother, so they recast."
What Happened To Will Friedle After Boy Meets World?
After Boy Meets World wrapped in 2000, Will Friedle's career changed significantly. Fans of the actor know that his onscreen roles have been scarce, as he seemed in a couple of initiatives. In 2004, he co-starred with Chris Owen in the impartial film National Lampoon's Gold Diggers. He additionally seemed in a supporting function in the 2005 ABC Family film Everything You Want.
What become apparent was that Friedle seemed to take a step again from performing onscreen, choosing voice-over work. It looked like a risky move for the actor who had such good fortune portrayal the liked Eric Matthews, but he persevered inside that realm of performing.
Fans have been shocked although when, after retiring from on-screen work, the actor signed as much as appear on the Boy Meets World spinoff Girl Meets World to reprise his cherished persona. Will Friedle was to start with frightened to return to on-screen appearing earlier than making the decision to fully come back. “I began looking at the display firstly, and watched the progression of the characters and the entirety,” Friedle tells Entertainment Weekly. “I wanted to enhance everybody.”
Friedle additionally decided to go back to the sequence because he felt lovers deserved to see what happened to his character.
"And there came a point where it almost wasn’t fair if the audience didn’t get to see what happened to Eric. ‘Cause they’ve been there forever, so it’s like, you know, at some point you’re just kind of being mean if you don’t come back. So I wanted to make sure that we got a good Eric story, and you can kind of see what he’s been up to for the audience," he advised EW.
The Truth About Will Friedle's Anxiety
When issues do not always pass as planned with in an actor's career, other folks think they simply "fell off" as a result of lack of ability. But that's not all the time the case. Sometimes, in truth a bit of deeper.
After Boy Meets World wrapped, it looked like Will Friedle had fallen off the map and fans by no means knew why. But in 2018, the actor got candid about what life-altering struggles he confronted when the series ended, and it put issues in viewpoint.
At a 2018 New York Comic Con panel, the actor opened up about how his battle with anxiety forced him to abandon acting altogether. His anxiety made it nearly inconceivable for him to proceed on with the career fanatics anticipated for him.
"I was planning to do more on-camera work, but then I got hit with these anxiety attacks that prevented me from doing that," Friedle said.
Friedle later added that the anxiety began when he was around 22 or 23 years previous. “My career used to be going in a single course, I assumed I was going to be an on-camera actor my complete life,” he advised the gang. “It were given to the point the place my nervousness used to be so bad that I couldn’t audition for on-camera stuff anymore.".
Why Will Friedle Only Does Voice Acting Now
Alan Matthews, the patriarch of the Matthews clan on Boy Meets World, told Will Friedle's character Eric that— he could be anything he wanted to be if he tried as hard as he could. Over the years, Friedle has managed to still achieve success despite setbacks.
Sometimes when door closes, another one opens. Will Friedle's journey since Boy Meets World wrapped is definitely an ode to that cliché, as his inability to act on-screen led him to another opportunity behind the scenes. Following stepping away from in front of the camera, the actor opened up at the 2018 panel about his love of voice-over work.
"What introduced me to voice-over was nervousness," he explained.
Over the years since the show ended, Friedle has lent his voice to comic heroes such as Batman, Nightwing, Green Lantern, Deadpool and Star Lord. He's also voiced Ron Stoppable in the epic Disney series Kim Possible, Master Splinter in TMNT, Lion-O in Thundercats, and Bumblebee in Transformers. Voice-over work, for the actor, had been a way for the actor to still remain in touch with his talent despite not acting onscreen anymore.
"I used to be so grateful I had voice-over because I could still carry out and act," he mentioned.
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