Jerry O’Connell apologized to Wil Wheaton for not recognizing the abuse Wheaton suffered from his parents during Stand by Me‘s production. O’Connell and Wheaton are both members of the Star Trek family now. Wheaton played Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation (though he is not among the returning). He also hosts The Ready Room. Star Trek: Lower Decks. But Wheaton and O’Connell have been friends since they worked together filming Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me, the 1986 adaptation of Stephen King’s short story “The Body.”
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Wheaton has opened up in the past about how his parents treated him, saying his parents “forced” him to go into acting against his wishes. Speaking to Yahoo Entertainment in 2021, Wheaton said he suffered “a combination of incredible emotional abuse from my father and a lot of manipulation, using me, from my mother.” Wheaton also feels that his trauma came through in his performance as Gordon Lachance. “When I watch Stand by Me now, I cannot ignore the unbelievable sadness in my eyes. 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.”
Wheaton and O’Connell appeared on The Talk to discuss Stand by Me and got a surprise greeting from Reiner. But O’Connell also took the opportunity to apologize to Wheaton for not seeing what he was suffering at the time.
“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,” O’Connell said. “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.”
Wheaton graciously accepted his friend’s support but reminded O’Connell that he was only a child himself at the time. “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.”
