You could do a lot worse than getting to play Topanga Lawrence during your formative years.
Though Danielle Fishel admittedly had some catching up to do when it came to matching the maturity of the 11-year-old when Boy Meets World premiered in 1993.
"When Topanga was first created I felt she was very different from me," the actress, who played her throughout her teens and again in her 30s, told E! News in an exclusive interview. "She talked slower, she was very sure of herself. She had a lot of strong feminist beliefs that young Danielle had never even thought about."
But eventually, Fishel continued, "we started to become more one in the same, and I don't know where the line starts to blur."
To this day, she added, "I don't know how much of who Danielle is, is because of the way Topanga was, or vice versa. I describe Topanga as just being on the other side of my heart—at any given point in time, I can click into it. She is I and I am she. "
And she's not mad about it—not least because the 41-year-old knows actors can spend their whole careers hoping to play a part that means something to people, and she won the brass ring almost right out of the gate.
"It will always be a defining aspect of who I am," Fishel said. "And that character was such a cool person—how could you possibly get any luckier?"
So let's just say, she's a damsel, but not the distressed kind.
Besides, Fishel wouldn't be doing her podcast Pod Meets World if she were over it.
"We're watching it for what feels like the first time," she said of unpacking the '90s TGIF staple through the prism of adulthood with co-hosts Rider Strong and Will Friedle, "and it's really made us appreciate it all so much more."
And speaking of fruit from the Topanga tree, it was while playing the grown-up mom version on the 2014-to-2017 Disney Channel sequel series Girl Meets World that Fishel first stepped behind the camera to direct—an experience that only made her want more "Action!" in her life.
These days, however, she also makes sure work doesn't take her away for too long from her sons Adler, 3, and Keaton, 20 months, with writer-comedian husband Jensen Karp. So, when the couple were approached about collaborating on a project for Karp to write and Fishel direct, she recalled, "Jensen and I looked at each other and we were like, 'Yeah, let's take this challenge on together.'"
The result is the Tubi original Classmates, a witty YA comedy-meets-crime-caper about two college freshmen who decide what's the harm in swapping identities after a computer error scrambles their registration info.
Fishel talked to E! News about how her own world has opened up in ways she never could have planned for:
E!: Did you have a plan for after Boy Meets World ended in 2000?
Danielle Fishel: I knew I needed a break from acting—I felt very burnt out and I just didn't want to do anything for a while. But you know, the expression, "strike while the iron is hot," that's the time when most people want to cast you in something. After taking a few years off, it was much harder to get work. I had this crisis in my mid-20s of, like, "What will I do with my life? Here I am at 24 and I've apparently peaked, it's over."
That's when I decided to go to school. I fell in love with psychology and realizing I could have a career as a marriage and family therapist, and be just as happy and fulfilled as I had been being an actor, really opened up a lot of doors for me. And of course, as the cliché goes, you pursue one thing, and then Hollywood comes knocking.
E!: Did you always want to direct?
DF: When I was on Boy Meets World, I never thought directing was something I wanted to do. I went back to the set of Girl Meets World, that was the first time it hit me: Oh, I really like guiding actors toward their performances. [Series co-creator] Michael Jacobs was kind enough to give me the opportunity to direct my first episode, I ended up doing four. And then I spent the next two years begging people to take me seriously, and I was going to their sets and shadowing other directors. Once I got started, and people gave me a chance, it just snowballed.
E!: What do you like about working with your husband?
DF: There's nobody I'd rather spend my time with. I have a tendency to be very rigid and structured, and Jensen is much more fun and relaxed. So, similarly to the way the characters in Classmates change each other, Jensen and I change each other. I keep Jensen structured, and Jensen keeps me light. It's a really good balance both in our personal life and in work.
E!: How do you balance "mom guilt" and pursuing your career aspirations?
DF: I realized it's not just mom guilt, it's parent guilt. Rider Strong has an 8-year-old and he's got all the same guilt. I am very fortunate that Jensen, writing and producing, is able to be home. And we have the world's best nanny. She gives me the gift of being able to be not just the mom, but also the businesswoman and the director and the producer and all those things that I want to do. With that said, I also try to plan my schedule in a way that gives me a few busy weeks of working and then I have a few weeks where I get to be home, where I'm working on Zoom and my children are just downstairs.
E!: How does your work influence your approach to parenting?
DF: I do everything I can with the goal being my family's health and wellness, but part of my family's health and wellness is me feeling fulfilled. I know that I want my children to someday prioritize career and family, and I think the best way to do that is to model it for them. There are times I'll be listening to the podcast for editing and Adler goes, "Mommy, is this you?" I love that he's getting to see me excitedly talk about my work. I hope that no matter what he chooses to do in the future, he loves his work as much as I love mine.
E!: The Boy Meets World cast tends to break the Internet when you reunite. Who is most responsible for keeping you in each other's orbit?
DF: Rider and I are both pretty good about that. Probably more so me—but we all stay in touch and make sure we think ahead, like, "We're all going to be in the same place. We should try to get together and make a reservation for dinner."
E!: When you're out and about, do people still call you Topanga?
DF: And I answer.
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)