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Ashley Johnson is recalling a terrifying moment from her childhood in Hollywood, revealing a fan grabbed her and tried to abduct her during a live taping of “Growing Pains.”
The former child star says she was just 7 years old when an armed fan broke from a studio audience line, grabbed her and tried to carry her away during a live taping after production had received a threat warning that someone planned to bring a gun to the set. Johnson said the man was armed.
“It was in the first year that I was on, and we had only done a couple of film nights,” Johnson began on the “Weird Kids” podcast.
The child star behind Chrissy Seaver, Ashley Johnson, reveals how lax security on the “Growing Pains” set led to a terrifying kidnapping attempt by an armed fan. (Christopher Polk/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Back then, she said, security around the cast was far less restrictive than it is today.
“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,” Johnson said. “Like they’re not like the fancy trailers that they are now.”
Ashley Johnson says an armed man grabbed her during a live taping of “Growing Pains” when she was 7, after production received a chilling threat. (Walt Disney Television/Getty Images)
She explained that cast members walked directly past audience members on their way into the studio.
“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.
“And this is going to get a little dark, but somebody had written in and said that ‘I am coming to set, and I am going to bring a gun … I am going to murder some of the cast.’”
This 1991 image released by ABC shows the cast of “Growing Pains,” including Leonardo DiCaprio, Alan Thicke, Jeremy Miller, Kirk Cameron, Joanna Kerns, Tracey Gold and Ashley Johnson. (Bob D’Amico/ABC)
With audience members only “within five feet” away when the cast was walking into the studio, Johnson said one man suddenly lunged toward her.
“So, I’m walking with my mom, and then I just remember some guy hops out of the line, and he grabs me … grabs me up and starts booking it,” she said. “And all I remember is like, there was security that somehow got on him after some time.”
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Johnson pointed out that she was too young to grasp the danger.
She remembered “flying around in the air” as security wrestled the suspect to the ground.
“The Last of Us” actress Ashley Johnson reveals an armed fan attempted to abduct her at age 7 during a ‘Growing Pains’ live taping after a threat was sent to the set. (Ben Gabbe/Getty Images)
“I was clueless as to what was happening, but I was very upset, and they were talking to me about it after. And they were like, ‘Are you okay?’ … And I just said, ‘I just think I’m going to be in trouble.'”
“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,” she said.
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Looking back, Johnson said she didn’t immediately feel frightened because, “I was such a polite kid at the time.”
Johnson joined “Growing Pains” in 1990 as Chrissy Seaver, becoming the youngest member of the sitcom’s family alongside Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold and Jeremy Miller.
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Leonardo DiCaprio later joined the cast before the show’s 1992 finale.
The actress went on to build a decades-long career on screen and in voice acting, earning widespread acclaim as Ellie in “The Last of Us” video game franchise before appearing as Anna, Ellie’s mother, in HBO’s television adaptation.