Matthew Lawrence says his crush on Danielle Fishel caused tension with Justin Timberlake: 'He didn’t like me'
The "Boy Meets World" actor admits he accidentally made a bad impression on the NSYNC singer.
Matthew Lawrence said bye bye bye to his chances of a friendship with Justin Timberlake a long time ago, when the duo first met on the set of Boy Meets World.
While Lawrence has alway been a big fan of the then-NSYNC singer, they unfortunately got off on the wrong foot. Or at least, that's what the actor was told by Timberlake himself. Lawrence divulged the details of the encounter on the latest episode of the rewatch podcast Pod Meets World, hosted by his former costars Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle.
“I don't know if you guys — well, of course, you remember this — but when NYSYNC kept coming over to the set? I found out years later, when I bumped into Justin, that he thought I was not very nice,” Lawrence revealed. “He didn't like me. And he flat out told me to my face.”
Lawrence explained that this revelation came hot on the heels of Timberlake’s debut solo album, Justified, when he approached the pop star to compliment his work.
“I was a huge fan,” he said. “I didn't have any recollection of this, and he was like, ‘Oh yeah? Yeah? Now you wanna be friends with me? You were so mean on the set.’”
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Matthew Lawrence, Danielle Fishel, and Justin TimberlakeWhile Friedle, Strong, and Fishel initially reacted with shock, they then admitted that Timberlake's bad impression was probably due to Lawrence being pretty as a teen.
“I was super shy,” Lawrence agreed, but also pointed to another reason that he may have responded poorly to NSYNC's constant presence. “I had, you know, kind of a crush on Danielle. And these guys kept rolling up on set, like, trying to hit on her!”
Strong was quick to back him up, adding that the band was “just orbiting around Danielle in a constant circle.”
Fishel only laughed: “I was wondering if you were gonna say it! I was like, ‘I also know why he was probably a little standoffish.’”
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Though Lawrence was apparently the only one whose jealousy made an impression on Timberlake, Strong and Friedle commiserated the memory of sharing Fishel’s attention with the massively popular boy band.
“I remember us guys would always be like, ‘These dudes! Oh my god, they come around here.’ And we would watch Danielle, like, completely ignore all of us,” Strong said. “We would, like, lose our sister. We would just lose her, and we'd be like, ‘Oh, god. She totally changes around them. She just totally changes.’”
The former castmates then joked about the fact that Fishel ultimately went on to land Lance Bass, who she dated for about a year in 1999 — six years before he would publicly come out as gay.
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Ben Savage, Will Friedle, Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel, an Matthew Lawrence on 'Boy Meets World'Related: Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel thinks Cory and Topanga shouldn't have gotten married on show
Friedle quipped that, despite her “one-in-five chance” of ending up with a member of NSYNC, “she chose poorly.” But Fishel maintained that it was all part of the plan.
“I liked the comfort and security of knowing nothing was gonna happen,” she joked.
Meanwhile, Lawrence lamented that he never got the chance to fully explain himself to Timberlake. But despite his jealousy over the “Cry Me a River” singer, Fishel made no mention of Timberlake ever pursuing her and previously mentioned that he played an instrumental role in kicking off her romance with his bandmate.
Bass joined the Pod Meets World hosts for a 2023 episode of the podcast, where he and Fishel shared details about their nearly foiled meet-cute, when NSYNC played a televised event hosted by Fishel. After Bass failed to get her number, Fishel saw the tour bus depart and assumed they had missed their chance — until someone called her name.
“I stopped, and I turned around, and it was Justin," Fishel said, sharing that Timberlake asked for her number and said it was for Bass. "And sure enough, a couple days later, I had a missed call and a voicemail from Lance — and it was Lance but Justin also screaming in the background about how nervous Lance was to be calling me."
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