Wil Wheaton had a sympathetic response to his Stand by Me costar Jerry O'Connell's apology for "not being there more" for him amid his childhood abuse: "You were 11."
The longtime friends reunited on The Talk on Thursday, where O'Connell, who cohosts the show, apologized to Wheaton publicly for the first 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. I don't feel guilt, but I just want to say I'm sorry I wasn't there for you more."
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"I deeply appreciate that," Wheaton responded. "You were 11. 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."
Back in May, ahead of the film's 35th anniversary, Wheaton spoke openly about the abuse he endured — mostly in silence — from his parents during his childhood. In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, he said he suffered "a combination of an incredible emotional abuse from my father and a lot of manipulation, using me, from my mother."
A few days after Wheaton's revelations, O'Connell voiced support and sympathy for his former costar on The Talk. "I had no idea he was feeling this when we were doing this film," O'Connell said, adding, "I wish I was older back then so I could have said, 'Hey Wil, hey man, is anything wrong?'"
Wheaton was 14 when he starred opposite O'Connell, River Phoenix, and Corey Feldman in the coming-of-age classic, but had already been a child actor in Hollywood for several years. He told Yahoo, "I didn't want to be an actor when I was a kid. My parents forced me to do it. My mother coached me to go into her agency and tell the children's agent, 'I want to do what mommy does.'"
Wheaton also revealed that his inner turmoil during filming helped inform his performance. "Gordie's experience very much reflected my experience. We're both invisible in our homes," he explained, adding that rewatching the film takes him back to his complicated childhood. "When I watch Stand by Me now, I cannot ignore the unbelievable sadness in my eyes," he said. "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."
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