Maitland Ward exposes Hollywood's 'dark secrets'

Maitland Ward, best known for playing Rachel McGuire in Boy Meets World at the age of just 21, earned widespread fame.

But her time in Hollywood was not a fairytale story, according to her claims, when she was a young star.

In a sit-down with Fox News Digital, the former star-turned-adult performer alleges that as a teen in the industry, she was exploited by the factory-like system.

"I can't speak to how Hollywood is today because it's such a different animal than it was back when I was getting into it," the 49-year-old tells the outlet, as she starred in Investigation Discovery's Hollywood Demons.

Slamming the industry, Ward adds, "Back then, I think they looked at these young actors as like property coming in."

In her view, Hollywood wants to control newcomers into a product it can sell, regardless of the actors' identities.

"And I really believe the studios wanted to mould and form these young actors into what they wanted them to be, what they needed them to be for the company and for the audience, and into what they felt would identify with."

She continues, "I think it was such a factory kind of environment. Like you were just a product being sold, and you knew that yourself."

At the time, Ward admits she had not found the treatment meted out to her to be objectionable.

"I mean, I didn't think anything was wrong at the time with anything that was going on really. I mean, it felt ill at ease in my own body and all my feelings and stuff."

"But I thought that was just me being stupid. I have to be professional. I have to be part of that Hollywood machine. And that's really what it was," Ward concludes.