Matthew Lawrence claims his talent agency dropped him after an Oscar-winning director asked him to take off his clothes in exchange for a role in a Marvel movie. The Boy Meets World star, 43, declined to share specifics of the incident. He made the allegations during the latest episode of the Brotherly Love podcast with his brothers, fellow actors Joey Lawrence and Andrew Lawrence.
Lawrence said thereย have been “many times” he was approached for a huge role. “I’ve lost my agency because I went to the hotel room, which I can’t believe they would send me to, of a very prominent Oscar award-winning director who showed up in his robe, asked me to take my clothes off, and said he needed to take Polaroids of me,” Lawrence recalled. He claimed the director told him that if he did “X, Y, And Z, I would be the next Marvel character.”
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Lawrence refused, so his agency “fired” him. Lawrence did not identify the agency, director, or Marvel project involved in his story. Joey added that he experienced similar situations, adding that he “lost out” on several “big movie parts.”
Lawrence brought up the story during a larger conversation about the #MeToo movement with his brothers. While he agreed that the #MeToo movement was a good thing, he believes there is a double standard when it comes to the response men see when they discuss their sexual harassment experiences compared to women. He brought up Terry Crews’ allegations against former WME agent Adam Venit. The America’s Got Talent host accused Venit of groping him in 2017. Crews sued Venit, and they later settled in September 2018.
“Terry Crews comes out and says it; people are laughing at him,” Lawrence said on Brotherly Love. “People don’t support him. They kick him out. Why? Because he’s a man that represents masculinity. And I think our society is less ready to hear that situation going on with men than they are with women.”
Earlier in the podcast, Lawrence made it very clear that he was not downplaying women’s experiences. “Now granted, it’s probably about a third of what women go through,” he said. “The amount of men… Men go through this as well, whether it’s another woman or another man in power.”
Lawrence is best known for playing Jack Hunter on Boy Meets World from 1997 to 2000. He also starred in the NBC/The WB series Brotherly Love with Joey and Andrew. His more recent credits include Girl Meets World, Hawaii Five-0, Worst Cooks in Americaย and Money Plane.ย
