’90s teen heartthrobs Lance Bass and Danielle Fishel dated back in the day (spoiler alert: it didn’t work out), and now they’re making a movie about their relationship, which ended once Bass came to terms with being gay.
Fishel announced the movie when Bass appeared on a recent episode of Pod Meets World, her Boy Meets World re-watch podcast she hosts with co-stars Rider Strong and Will Friedle. The film, written by Lauren Lapkus and Marie Holland, is based on Fishel and Bass’ 1999-2000 relationship, which culminated in the two attending Fishel’s senior prom.
On the podcast, the actress recounted meeting the NSYNC singer when the boy band performed on an ABC TGIF live special. At the end of the event, Bass enlisted Justin Timberlake to get Fishel’s number for him, “and it took us an hour to write what I was going to say” when he called her, the singer recalled.
Despite Bass having a huge crush on Fishel, as the actress put it, “it turns out I’m not Lance’s type” — something the expectations associated with prom night really brought to a head.
“Lance and I had a hotel room booked and I had a vision for what that night was going to be, and Lance was very nervous about what my vision for that night was going to be,” Fishel recalled. “That is the night Lance talks about, where he felt like he was hurting me by not being honest with himself or anyone else about what was going on in his life so it was kind of the impetus for him to say, ‘I’m going to end our relationship.'”
Bass added, “The reason we wanted to make this prom story into a film, I think so many people can relate to that story,” he said. “So many people in the LGBT community, their prom night was the night they were like, ‘Oh, wait a minute. This can’t happen anymore.’ This was the catalyst for me that made me start to accept myself, which took a long time after that, but that was definitely the first little straw that broke.”
Though Fishel admitted that she “held on for hope for way too long that we were going to get back together and get married and have a family,” she and Bass remain close friends. Listen to the two’s complete interview on the Pod Meets World podcast below.
