Will Friedle’s Eric Matthews may be perceived as the dumb older brother now, but in the earlier seasons of Boy Meets World, he was the cool girl-crazy high schooler with a new girlfriend every week. One of those girlfriends of the week just happened to be The Mighty Ducks alum Marguerite Moreau. The two actors shared one of Boy Meets World’s more well-known make out scenes. The moment was quite steamy at the time considering the ABC sitcom’s young audience. Looking back at the suggestive scene, Moreau and Friedle finally addressed how awkward it was for them.
In the Season 2 episode ‘Pairing Off,” Cory catches Eric and his girlfriend Rebecca making out on their parents’ bed. While things appeared to get hot and heavy between the two teens, filming the intimate moment wasn’t as fun as viewers might’ve thought. In an appearance on the rewatch podcast Pod Meets World, the two former teen stars finally spilled what it was like filming the make out scene. Friedle opened up about how the week played out up until the filming day:
I distinctly remember that week. I remember certain things about the show… But I remember some very specific things about that week. One of them which I talked about at nauseam was that you and I got along very well. I was very comfortable with you. I thought we had a good dynamic. But I also remember being instantly thrown into making out, and then, us being on the bed and then the everyone kinda surrounding us.
As actors have said many times, filming intimate scenes isn’t as glamorous and steamy as the final results portrayed. This seemed even more intimidating for teenage actors. Thinking about the make out scene, Friedle asked Moreau if she remembered the blocking they did for the scene. The former BMW guest star barely recollected that part but did remember her feelings on filming day:
Yeah, I do but in a loose way. I was excited to do the part, and we got along so well. So, I felt like you and I were there with all these grown men and maybe there were some females there but I don’t remember. And we were just doing our best to be grownup about it. I was probably also a little excited. But I was also like ‘I hope I’m doing this right.’ I was also like ‘Why can’t we figure this out? We’re smart. We have chemistry. We’ll get it.’
It sounds like Moreau was prepared for her and the Eric Matthews actor to take control of the bed scene but didn’t want to step on any toes. The Mighty Ducks star did question one decision from the producers as she didn’t understand why Friedle had to roll on top of her. She felt the act didn’t add to the steamy scene. Despite being watched over by male staff, the former child star did find the silver lining in working with the BMW star for a week:
How I remember it, Will. The reward for that awkwardness is that we got to have fun kisses. [I was like] ‘Okay, I got to do that. Now, this is fun.’ So, I had very fond memories of it. and so, I probably blocked out anything that felt weird.
Hearing Moreau’s on-set account allowed Friedle to ease his anxiety over the scene from three decades ago. He mentioned the fun times were mutual for him as well, saying:
That’s a good thing. Again, I don’t have bad memories of it, frankly.
It seems that Friedle and Moreau found comfort in each other in a room filled with adults. The Wet Hot American Summer alum felt safe around the actor. However, she was honest about being a guest star on the hit sitcom.
I think we had a lovely time. But it was just an awkward thing to do with a bunch of grown strangers for me. It was also the power dynamic of being the guest and not being able to [have a say].
She called Friedle polite over his handling of the intimate scene. However, Friedle was quite anxious about the scene as he recalled the ”layers of nerves” born from his high school insecurities. He did mention working with Moreau was enjoyable during her week on set. The Kim Possible alum echoed Moreau’s earlier sentiment about wanting some say about the hot-and-heavy moment:
It was as actors then it was kinda like ‘Let us work it out. Let us figure it out how we’re going to do this. But you know we’re young. You’re the guest star where I was just starring [the] second season. I still wasn’t speaking up like ‘No, I got this.’ That wasn’t part of the vernacular yet.
If Friedle felt like that as a series regular, it's no wonder that Moreau didn’t feel empowered to speak up as a one-time guest. She explained how she felt about the scene in the years to follow:
I don’t even know if I would’ve had the words… For years, I was ashamed of this grownup kiss I got to do ‘cause no one said ‘That’s adorable. These are children, and this is a childish moment.’ I didn’t understand you and I were supposed to be kids making mistakes.
The BMW guest star felt she and Friedle were seen as adults rather than two teenagers getting in over their heads. While doing the ABC sitcom was just work for Friedle, he reflected on the set experience now as an adult working his teenage self:
I’m glad it was you because that made it far more comfortable. I remembered we talked about it and all that stuff going into it. Again, at the time, it was just work. It was enjoyable but still, it was work. It’s not again until later when you look at the whole situation as an adult. Now, I put myself in the shoes of the adults there, and I try to imagine myself standing around with a bunch of my friends watching two seventeen or eighteen-year-olds making out on a bed and trying to direct them on how to make it look like it’s going to go [far]. And that’s where I get a little bit creeped out.
Watching your teenage self as an adult could make any actor cringe in retrospect. Knowing how the scene came together made it even harder for Friedle to reconcile the influence of the adult staff. Even Moreau mentioned she would never put a teenager through that experience before recalling the 1990s sitcoms having a different atmosphere.
No, I mean I was seventeen. You wouldn’t do that to your kid. And it was off the time in terms of all of us accepting that this was just how it was. I think part of our comfort in that moment that we weren’t even realizing we were uncomfortable and made to feel [ it at times]. To realize a lot of that stuff was maybe a little questionable at times but handle with as much grace as it could be.
Thinking back to the 1990s, there were certain protocols and practices in Hollywood that wouldn’t fly in today’s world. Of course, their recount of the make out scene didn’t sound too far from the Boy Meets World cast talking about being child actors and facing rejection.
Marguerite Moreau was just the latest Boy Meets World guest star to open up about their experiences like Adam Scott explaining his disappearance in Season 3 and Lindsey Price’s thoughts on tackling racism on the ABC sitcom. If you want to revisit every episode of BMW, get a Disney+ subscription. Don’t forget to follow Pod Meets World to see which famous guest star might pop up next.
