Maitland Ward, who first found fame playing Jessica Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful and then Rachel McGuire on the hit Disney TV show Boy Meets World in the ’90s, was exposed to the often-unspoken dark side of Hollywood as a teenager.
From being placed in compromising and “provocative” positions on set as a minor to quickly becoming a product of the “warped male gaze” at a young age, the California native has faced one hardship after another and is now preparing to expose the pitfalls of young stardom.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, the former child actress, who will star in an upcoming episode of Investigation Discovery, “Hollywood Demons,” opens up about her troubling past of becoming an artificial “product” as a child, and explains how she was able to escape societal norms and make headlines as an adult film star.
Ward, 49, said, “I can’t speak to what Hollywood is like now, because Hollywood is a very different animal than it was when I was interested in Hollywood. I think back then they looked at young actors like incoming property. And I truly believe that the studios wanted to shape and mold young actors into what they wanted them to be, what they needed for the company and the audience, and what they felt they could relate to.”
“I think it was a very factory-like environment, where I was just a product being sold and I knew it,” she continued. “I mean, at the time, I thought whatever was going on was fine, really. I was insecure about my body and my emotions and everything, but I thought it was just me being stupid. I have to be a professional. I have to be part of the Hollywood machine, and that’s what it was.”
For Ward, telling his story in Hollywood Demons was an opportunity to release a burden he had been carrying for years.
“It was very therapeutic to be able to tell a story at my age now, about myself at 16, 17 and 20, about my younger self entering an industry that thought of themselves as a commodity and often looked down on that commodity. They just wanted it for what they wanted, and when they didn’t, they put it aside. And that’s what happened to a lot of young actors.”
“I think this show really examines that in a lot of ways in young Hollywood, especially in the ’90s and early 2000s world, a world where women just had to be put in a box and be young women who were either virgins or sluts,” she continued. “I hate to use those terms exactly, but that’s what it was.”
“It was like Britney Spears. She had to go on TV and say publicly that she was a virgin, but she was provocatively used because of her body and her sexual image, and it was like the distorted male gaze that Hollywood puts on everyone. I said this is what I want, this is what I want you to be, this is what I want women to be. But that wasn’t really true, because now when you go back or tell people, they’re like, “Oh, I love this about you, or I love this thing about the show.” And it’s very different from what the audience was told they wanted. ”
Ward, who was 21 when he joined the cast late in the season, said it was difficult to look back on his time on Boy Meets World and all the “provocative and bizarre situations” he was put in.
In a 2022 interview with Complex magazine, Ward detailed how she was “sexualized” while appearing on the Disney show.
“I didn’t know that food fights were so fetish-y. I didn’t know there was food and feet and all that going on. I didn’t realize all the innuendo that was being made at Rachel’s direction, and I think the writers, especially Michael, really enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t on my terms,” Ward said, referring to co-creator Michael Jacobs.
Ward said he didn’t think much about it at the time.
“We all thought it was normal, but no one thought anything about it,” Ward told FOX News Digital. “And I, like a young viewer, like a kid watching it, and I didn’t think anything of it. But when you look closer, it was adults who were creating this space and making these kinds of products. Just seeing how other people went through similar situations makes me really concerned.”
Ward said she feels free to be able to vent her frustrations and connect with others in similar situations, as talking about feelings of doubt was taboo at the time.
“It’s kind of liberating to say, ‘Oh, wait, you felt that way too? You went through a similar situation.'” There are so many stories we don’t know. We just see what Hollywood shows us. But[Hollywood Demons]really breaks down those walls that we had. We can see everything that’s going on and it’s really important that we look into this, especially for future generations, the younger generations that are coming up. ”
Ward, who has not only recently found great success in the adult film industry, but is also an advocate for women who break down barriers in both public and private life, has never felt more empowered.
Ward, who published her memoir Rated X: How Porn Freed Me from Hollywood in 2022, said: “I feel really free after all this. I think I was just able to let so much of myself out.” “I think people have misconceptions about actors in general and of course people in the adult industry in general. And I think my story is multifaceted.”
“This is a story for every woman and every person who keeps saying ‘no’ over and over again,” she added. “They’re telling them what they’re supposed to be and how they’re supposed to act. We see it in everyday life. Like in any business, in any situation, people try to put women in particular into this box. And it’s really a story of self-discovery and just finding yourself as an authentic human being in the way you want to be.”
“Hollywood Demons: Child Stars Gone Wild” will premiere on Investigation Discovery on Monday, April 27th. Episodes are available to stream on HBO Max.
