Danica McKellar Reveals How Fame Impacted Life After THE WONDER YEARS
By Movieguide® Contributor
Great American Pure Flix actress Danica McKellar recently revealed that she questioned her value when her ’80s sitcom THE WONDER YEARS ended after making her a household name.
“I had friends in the business whose parents were so overly impressed with everything that was going on with their kids that it puts too much pressure on the kid,” McKellar told Cheryl Burke. “You know? It’s like…I dealt with enough of that when the show was over.”
“When THE WONDER YEARS was over and I went to UCLA, it all happened around the same time,” she added. “For me, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh. Who, what would my value be if I didn’t have this show?’”
McKellar played teenager Winnie Cooper on the show. Although she never doubted her value with her parents, she wasn’t sure if she had anything else she could contribute to the world.
READ MORE: DANICA MCKELLAR REVEALS HOW HER PARENTS KEPT HER GROUNDED AS A CHILD STAR
“I questioned what my value was in the world. So that’s a big difference,” she explained. “My grandmother, though. My grandmother, she would literally introduce me as — I love her. I mean, I love her so much. She lived to be 99 years old. She’s like, ‘This is Danica from THE WONDER YEARS.’ Not, ‘This is Danica, my granddaughter.’ It was hilarious. She was just proud.”
She’s grateful for her time on the show, though, and reunited with her WONDER YEARS castmates earlier this year.
“Why do these people look familiar?” she said in an Instagram Story at the time accompanied by Dan Lauria, Josh Saviano, Alley Mills and Jason Hervey. “We’re missing Olivia [d’Abo], but we’re here for the autograph convention.”
After the reunion, McKellar shared a group photo with her former castmates and wrote, “I mean, c’mon…! 😭 So great to be with my WONDER YEARS family this weekend! Sure, we’ve all seen each other through the years (just saw Dan & Josh last month, in fact!), but we realized this particular grouping hadn’t been together in well over 20 years…!”
READ MORE: DANICA MCKELLAR REVEALS HOW SHE ALMOST MISSED HER ROLE AS WINNIE ON THE WONDER YEARS
