A former child star on a hit sitcom from the 1980s and early ’90s is opening up about a scary incident that took place while working on the show.
That star is Ashley Johnson, who played Chrissy Seaver on “Growing Pains,” the family sitcom that launched the career of Kirk Cameron. Johnson appeared in the show’s final two seasons.
As she recalled in a recent episode of her “Weird Kids” podcast, she’d just finished taping an episode when she was approached by someone she’d never seen before.
A Frightening Threat
Getty“It was in the first year I was on, and we had only done a couple of film nights,” Johnson said in the podcast, as reported by Variety. “So, I hadn’t done that many yet and at that time, all of the cast sort of had trailers and they were like old camper trailers. They’re not like the fancy trailers that they are now. They were great. We would exit our trailers before the shoot and the audience that would be walking in, you would walk by the audience before you would walk into the studio,” she said.
In those days, the studio where the the show was filmed before a live studio audience didn’t have the kindof security measures available now. In fact, she recalled that members of the audience were often “within five feet” of actors as they came and went from the set.
That night, however, she’d been made aware of a threat that had been made against her.
“Somebody had written in and said that, ‘I am coming to set and I am going to bring a gun and I am going to murder some of the cast,’” Johnson recalled. “So, I’m walking with my mom and then I just remember some guy hops out of the line and he grabs me and grabs me up and starts booking it. And all I remember is like, there was security that somehow got on him after some time.”
She Was Understandably ‘Very Upset’
According to Johnson, a security guard sprang into action and fought to free her from the disturbed fan. She recalled “flying around in the air” during the fracas..
When he was finally apprehended, a gun was discovered on his person.
“I was clueless as to what was happening, but I was very upset and they were talking to me about it after,” Johnson continued.
“And they were like, ‘Are you OK?’ And I just said, ‘I just think I’m gonna be in trouble,’” she added. “Because I think I was such a polite kid at the time. I think he was running with me and running away. I was like, ‘Who are you, sir? What is your name? I was very pleased to meet you.’ But he was packing. They got him. This was the thing. He was high on something. It wasn’t meth, but it was something — like, he was so strong.”
A Shift to Voice Acting
These days, Johnson is a successful voice actor whose dulcet tones can be heard in numerous animated projects.
Among her diverse and extensive roster of credits are voicing Ellise in “The Last of Us” video games to Prime Video’s popular “The Legend of Vox Machina” animated fantasy series.
