{"id":524612,"date":"2026-07-13T23:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T23:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/524612\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T23:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T23:12:10","slug":"ashley-johnson-nearly-kidnapped-after-growing-pains-episode-filming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/524612\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashley Johnson Nearly Kidnapped After ‘Growing Pains’ Episode Filming"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cThe Last of Us\u201d voice actor Ashley Johnson<\/a> got her start in Hollywood as a child actor, playing the role of Chrissy Seaver on the final two seasons of ABC<\/a>\u2018s sitcom \u201cGrowing Pains<\/a>\u201d from 1990 to 1992. On a recent episode of her \u201cWeird Kids\u201d podcast<\/a>, Johnson revealed she was once nearly abducted by a fan after a live taping of the show (via People<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was in the first year I was on, and we had only done a couple of film nights,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cSo, I hadn\u2019t done that many yet and at that time, all of the cast sort of had trailers and they were like old camper trailers. They\u2019re not like the fancy trailers that they are now. They were great. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson said the studio was not equipped with metal detectors and other security measures that are now common practice in Hollywood. The studio audience would only be \u201cwithin five feet\u201d of the actors when they were entering the set, for example. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody had written in and said that, \u2018I am coming to set and I am going to bring a gun and I am going to murder some of the cast,\u2019\u201d Johnson continued. \u201cSo, I\u2019m walking with my mom and then I just remember some guy hops out of the line and he grabs me and grabs me up and starts booking it. And all I remember is like, there was security that somehow got on him after some time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSecurity apprehended the fan and Johnson remembered \u201cflying around in the air\u201d during the struggle to set her free. The would-be kidnapper had a gun on him, the actor recalled. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI 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, \u2018Are you okay?\u2019 And I just said, \u2018I just think I\u2019m gonna be in trouble,\u2019\u201d Johnson said. \u201cBecause I think I was such a polite kid at the time. I think he was running with me and running away. I was like, \u2018Who are you, sir? What is your name? I was very pleased to meet you.\u2019 But he was packing. They got him. This was the thing. He was high on something. It wasn\u2019t meth, but it was something \u2014 like, he was so strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson made her television debut on \u201cGrowing Pains\u201d and continued on the small screen with roles on short-lived series such as \u201cPhenom\u201d and \u201cMaybe This Time.\u201d She pivoted to voice acting at a young age with a role on the \u201cJumanji\u201d animated series, which included 40 episodes, and she\u2019d continue with this work throughout her career. She is the voice of Ellise in \u201cThe Last of Us\u201d video game franchise, which won her two BAFTA Games Awards.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing \u201cGrowing Pains,\u201d Johnson reprised her role of Chrissy Seaver in the 2000 movie \u201cThe Growing Pains Movie\u201d and the 2004 follow-up \u201cGrowing Pains: Return of the Seavers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Last of Us\u201d voice actor Ashley Johnson got her start in Hollywood as a child actor, playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[6761,259694,156,202952,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-524612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-abc","tag-ashley-johnson","tag-entertainment","tag-growing-pains","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}