Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong Talk ‘Protecting’ Younger Cast on ‘Boy Meets World’ Spinoff Set (Exclusive)

When it comes to making sure the cast of the Boy Meets World spinoff, Girl Meets World, were protected, Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong felt a sense of innate responsibility.

“I think we’re all protective of kids on the set,” Fishel, 45, exclusively told Us Weekly on Saturday, June 6, while attending the Doc Meets World premier red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival. “Everybody has their different approaches to the way they like to get performances out of people. Rider and I [are] both direct. I don’t think we do anything that inspires tears. I think if anything, we foster fun, inclusive — I mean, Rider used to do great games, we would do Running Charades.”

Strong, 46, added he was determined to create the kind of environment that would make the kids feel comfortable and confident enough to truly embody their given characters.

“We played Running Charades just to get the kids to loosen up,” he told Us on Saturday. “I always wanted them to feel as confident as possible [so] that they owned their characters, which is something, like, I didn’t quite feel when I was on Boy Meets World, and I wanted the kids to feel like they could own their characters.”

He continued, “It was great. Incredible to work with.”

Both Strong and Fishel know what it’s like to idolize adults on the set of a hit TV series. Starring as Topanga Lawrence and Shawn Hunter, respectively, on the hit show Boy Meets World, Strong admitted to Us that he “idolized” producer and show creator Michael Jacobs as a child.

“It was interesting to sort of be in it, you know, to see him how he actually probably always was, because I think as kids we just worshiped him,” Strong explained on Saturday. “We were like, ‘He was a genius,’ and he is — an amazing writer, an amazing creative force, and as an adult I got to see him as more of a human, just as a person.”

He continued, “And the best part about working as a director was working with kids on that show, because they were incredible.”

Now, as adults, the pair revealed to Us that they have learned how to pick and choose their so-called “battles” when it comes to pushing back, both on- and off-set.

“Yeah, I picked a lot of battles on Girl Meets World,” Fishel told Us. “I started picking every battle. I was like, ‘I’m gonna fight every fight!” and then at a certain point I realized, like, maybe I am making everybody’s life harder than it needs to be, and I’m just gonna pick and choose.”

She continued, “and I think I just went with my moral compass. Like something really… when I felt like I couldn’t go home at night without letting something go, I knew it was important to bring up. And then other times it was like, ‘I don’t love this, but it’s not my show.’ Then I would let that go.”

With reporting by Proma Khosla