FE-E-E-ENY!

Eric Matthews: son to Amy and Alan, older brother to Cory and both Morgans. What started as a hot jock big-bro stereotype quickly morphed into one of '90s TV's most offbeat, lovable characters, thanks to Will Friedle. And he ultimately provided some of the most memorable moments (Plays With Squirrels, anyone?) in Boy Meets World's seven-season run.

Now 41, Friedle got married last September, and he and his wife are currently in Australia for his appearance at Supanova Comic Con and Gaming Convention in Brisbane and Adelaide.

"Australia is amazing!" he tells TheFIX. "We got to cuddle a kangaroo and hold a koala. You have a beautiful country, and we can't wait to see more of it."

Will Friedle; Image: Supplied

Below, Friedle talks to TheFIX about growing up on set, coping with anxiety, and the very real likelihood that an Eric Matthews spin-off is on its way. Oh, we also threw in a question about My Date With the President's Daughter because that movie is highly underrated.

Belated congrats on the wedding! Was your wife already a fan of your work when you met?

My wife knew who I was, but she wasn't necessarily a Boy Meets World fan. My stepdaughter is a fan. Right before our wedding day, she said if somebody told her when she was 10 or 11 that Eric Matthews was going to be her stepdad, she would never have believed them. That was a really cool thing to hear.

Boy Meets World was such a '90s cultural phenomenon. Was it as much fun for you to make as it was for us all to watch?

Probably more so. While it was a big part of people's lives during the '90s, it was still just a half hour a week for the fans. For us, it was 24/7 for seven years. This was a show that was at a certain port in our lives that was so important to all of us. I was 16 when it started. Ben [Savage, who played Cory] was 11 when I met him. Danielle [Fishel, who played Topanga] was 11 when I met her. We really were like a family. It was an absolutely formidable part of growing up, and we did it together and we did it in front of a camera.

Any on-set mischief?

The guys – Ben, Rider [Strong, who played Shawn], Matthew [Lawrence, who played Jack], and myself – put together this ridiculous dance to the Backstreet Boys that we'd do in front of the audience every week. They'd push the cameras back and we'd do this lip-sync dance. We had an absolute blast.

Boy Meets World cast, from left: William Daniels, Will Friedle, Betsy Randle, Ben Savage, William Russ, Lily Nicksay, Rider Strong, Anthony Tyler Quinn, Danielle Fishel; Image: Getty

Please tell me you all have a Boy Meets World cast group text.

We have two group texts going! Rider, Ben, Danielle, and I text pretty regularly. And I see or speak to Rider and Ben all the time. It's a ton of fun.

And I saw William Daniels [Mr. Feeny] about a month or two ago. When he was working on his book, we went out to lunch, and he was asking me all kinds of Boy Meets World questions. And, of course, we were all in the final episode of [Disney Channel's reboot series] Girl Meets World.

Do strangers ever do the Feeny call – FE-E-E-ENY! – when they see you in public?

I hear it all the time. It happens at least once a week where I'll be somewhere, and I'll hear the Feeny call. I'm not sick of it. It's how they get my attention, and it's usually from behind me and far away. I just hear it over my shoulder. Rarely does it ever come from someone standing in front of me in close range.

Will Friedle and William Daniels on Boy Meets World; Image: Getty

Did you keep any mementos from set?

I have a John Adams High Athletic Dept. sweatshirt! Also, you weren't allowed to have brand names on TV back in the day, so our prop guy, whose name was Mark Papson, would put his name on things. So, I have a can of Dr. Papson because we couldn't have Dr. Pepper. It was little things like that that I saved. I didn't take anything big, though I wanted to take the red couch.

Girl Meets World was so well-received. Any chance of an Eric Matthews spin-off next?

There's been talks for a while of doing something with Eric. Whether it's an Eric Meets World kind of show, who knows. But I can almost guarantee you that you haven't seen the last of Eric Matthews. You'll be able to see him again... sometime soon.

You also starred in iconic '90s TV movie My Date With the President's Daughter.

Man, we had no idea what that movie would become. It turned out to be kind of a huge film in the Wonderful World of Disney universe.

The people on Twitter were talking about what if there's a sequel where Hallie and Duncan got married and their kid takes off and they've got to go find their grandfather. There's a whole bunch of different ideas out there. But who knows!

Elisabeth Harnois and Will Friedle in 1998's My Date With the President's Daughter

Is the theme song still stuck in your head, too?

It wasn't until just now. Thank you for that.

You've talked openly about struggling with anxiety and purposefully stepping away from on-screen roles to do voicework on shows like Kim Possible and the Guardians of the Galaxy series.

When I was about 23 or 24 I got hit with an anxiety disorder pretty badly. It was one of those things that changed the course of my life, and in a lot of ways, it changed it for the better. Being on camera, auditioning, that whole stressful side of the industry, I just couldn't do it anymore.

I started doing voiceovers, and I loved it. I've now been able to voice some pretty great roles: I've got another season of Guardians of the Galaxy. We just wrapped up Transformers: Robots in Disguise. I'm in the new Stretch Armstrong series on Netflix. I've been very lucky.

There's also some very neat on-camera things coming up because I'm slowly starting to get back into that – and maybe Eric Matthews will be one of them.

You can catch Will Friedle at Supanova in Adelaide November 17 to 19. Click here for tickets.