Jerry O’Connell apologized to his “Stand by Me” co-star Wil Wheaton on the Thursday’s episode of “The Talk” for being unaware that he was suffering from child abuse while making the classic 1986 coming-of-age classic. Wheaton told Yahoo Entertainment in May 2021 that his parents “forced” him to become a child actor, adding the he suffered “a combination of incredible emotional abuse from my father and a lot of manipulation, using me, from my mother.” The actor channeled the pain caused by his parents for his performance in “Stand by Me.”
“When I watch ‘Stand by Me’ now, I cannot ignore the unbelievable sadness in my eyes,” Wheaton said at the time. “And I cannot ignore the reality that it was that sadness, that isolation, that I think gave me what Gordie needed to come to life.”
O’Connell is a co-host of “The Talk” and used Wheaton’s appearance on the talk to show to offer the following apology: “I heard before you talk about some of the struggles you were going through during ‘Stand by Me,’ and you know, while I was 11 at the time, that’s an excuse, I do want to apologize for not being there more for you when you were younger.”
“But I want to say, to the bigger picture, you never know what someone is going through when you’re with them,” O’Connell added. “I don’t feel guilt, but I just want to say, I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you more.”
“You were 11,” Wheaton replied. “How could you have possibly known? Also, everyone in the audience who is a trauma survivor knows this: we’re real, real, real good at covering up what we’re going through.”
“Stand by Me” is a 1959-set drama starring O’Connell, Wheaton, River Phoenix and Corey Feldman as four friends who discover the dead body of a missing boy while out on a hike. The film, directed by Rob Reiner and based on the novel by Stephen King, earned an Oscar nomination for adapted screenplay and grossed $52 million worldwide.
