‘MY BLACK METER’

Trina McGee: I Was Asked to ‘Turn Down’ Blackness on ‘Boy Meets World’

McGee recalled how she was asked by the showrunner to “just turn down the Telma Hopkins about eight notches.”

Trina McGee, the actor who rose to fame playing Angela Moore on Boy Meets World, told her co-stars in a recent podcast episode that she was once asked to dial back her Blackness on the sitcom. Speaking on Pod Meets World, a recap series hosted by show alums Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong, McGee described how her experience on set differed from that of her white co-stars. “Coming from Black sitcoms, I always had to have, like, a Black meter,” said McGee, who had appeared in shows like Martin and Family Matters before being cast as Angela. She joked that her meter was “probably down to a two” on Boy Meets World, but while filming one particular episode she had “slipped up” and “was at about a nine.” She recalled how showrunner Michael Jacobs came over to her “and his note was, ‘Hey, Trina, just turn down the Telma Hopkins about eight notches,” in reference to the Family Matters actor. “I knew exactly what he was talking about, and I did… There are so many things you guys are so lucky you didn’t have to think about.”