Actor Ben Savage has announced a run for Congress in California — and now his former “Boy Meets World” cast mates have revealed what they think about his political future.
During last Wednesday’s episode of the “Pod Meets World” podcast, actors Will Friedle, Rider Strong, and Danielle Fishel began with a discussion about an episode of the 90s hit in which Cory Mathews (Savage’s character) ran for class president. That discussion quickly dovetailed into the most recent example of life imitating art — and Savage’s congressional campaign.
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Fishel, who played Savage’s onscreen love interest Topanga Lawrence, moderated the discussion and posed the question first to Friedle, who had played the role of Savage’s older brother Eric.
“Will, what would you like to say about Ben Savage running for Congress?” she asked.
Friedle made it clear that it wasn’t a topic up for discussion — and not for reasons having anything to do with Savage.
“I will say what I say any time anybody asks me to publicly speak about politics, which is I do not publicly speak about politics. It’s just the way I was raised; you don’t talk about politics, you don’t talk about your sex life, you don’t talk about how much money you make, you just don’t,” Friedle explained. “I do all my talking in the voting booth and I have since I was 18. And that is my answer.”
Strong also declined to make an endorsement, saying that while he understood the public’s fascination, he wasn’t ready to endorse a political candidate based on the fact that they worked together as teens. He went on to say that, unless things had changed, they might not agree on the issues anyway.
“When we were younger, Ben and I basically didn’t agree on much politically. We often found ourselves on exact opposite sides of almost every issue. Now, the important thing to state is that we were teenagers and it was 1993 through 2000, so maybe a lot has changed,” he said, adding, “I’m not going to endorse Ben simply because I had the same job as him when I was a teenager.”
Fishel pointed out that she couldn’t vote for Savage even if she wanted to because she lived in a different district. That said, she added, “I think it is very important to figure out what our individual priorities are … and you look for those things that mean the most to you, and try to find a leader that aligns with your values as closely as possible and then you support that person.”
Savage, if elected, would replace Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) — who has, in turn, announced his bid for retiring Senator Dianne Feinstein’s seat.