Jerry O'Connell and Wil Wheaton had a heart-to-heart on "The Talk," as the two reminisced on their days on "Stand By Me."
During Wheaton's appearance on the program on April 13, O'Connell apologized to his longtime friend after discovering that Wheaton had suffered child abuse while filming the movie in 1986.
"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 told Wheaton on the show.
Wheaton, who played the role of Gordie Lachance, responded to O'Connell, 'I deeply appreciate that.
"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."
Last year, Wheaton opened up about his turbulent childhood in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, saying that he was forced into becoming an actor by his parents, whom he is now estranged from.
'I didn't want to be an actor when I was a kid,' said the Burbank, California native. 'My parents forced me to do it. My mother made me do it. My mother coached me to go into her agency and tell the children's agent, "I want to do what mommy does."
"When I watch "Stand by Me" now, I cannot ignore the unbelievable sadness in my eyes," he said last year. "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."
Based on the Stephen King novella "The Body," "Stand By Me" also starred Kiefer Sutherland, John Cusack, and Richard Dreyfuss. It made $52 million worldwide at the global box office and was nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium the following year.
