Boy Meets World Actress 'Kicking Ass' as a Porn Star: 'I Make Great Money, I'm Proud of It' (Exclusive)

Maitland Ward's character on "Boy Meets World," Rachel McGuire, was last seen joining the Peace Corps and never heard from again -- but in real life, the actress' journey took a much different path.

The 42-year-old has been making headlines this week for her first full-length adult feature, "Drive," directed by performer-turned-director Kayden Kross. It's a big step for Ward, whose goal is to bridge the gap between adult and mainstream entertainment as she continues to fill out her increasingly-NSFW resume.

While many of her "Boy Meets World" costars would return for Disney's "Girl Meets World" reboot, Ward began to take the cosplay world by storm with appearances at conventions including Comic-Con dressed as a few of her favorite superhero characters. As she gained more recognition for her revealing looks, she began to push the envelope further -- starting a Patreon site for nudes, solo videos and, eventually, videos with both women and men. Currently, she's got an OnlyFans page, appeared in a recent video for Blacked.com and her new release on Vixen's Deeper.com.

So, how did this all happen over the course of the last few years? TooFab caught up with Ward as she broke down her career transformation, the support she's received from at least one of her former costars and her plan to make a superhero series that would bridge the gap between her love of cosplay and sex.

The first time we interviewed you was at the "Boy Meets World" reunion at Austin TV festival back in 2013.

It's been that long? It's crazy, that was six years ago!

About a year later, the "Girl Meets World" reboot launched and a lot of the original stars popped up on there. Curious if anyone ever approached you -- was that ever part of the conversation?

Yes, I was definitely open to that, but I started to do the other things with the cosplay and everything and it just didn't work. Like on both of our levels, you know. And then it went off the air. It was just more of a timing issue and what was going on. The cosplay stuff was really blowing up for me.

How did the cosplay career take off for you?

I had been a nerd from the beginning. I never knew I could get attention and have a career with the cosplay stuff. So when I dressed up for Comic-Con and then also for May the 4th Be With You as Slave Leia, it blew up everywhere. Then I really I became really popular doing cosplay. That was really exciting because that was just such a fun thing for me to be part of. I never thought it could actually go like widespread mainstream.

You must have gotten a whole different group of fans at that point as well.

Totally. I had "Boy Meets World" fans, but then it was like a whole onslaught of people who are into cosplay. And, of course, I did the sexy cosplay because I'm an exhibitionist at heart and I want to be a little shocking. But I also liked the characters. I like really kickass, sexy, female, hardcore characters that are strong and can be sexy and smart and everything so I would definitely pick characters that I identified with like that. I went around to cons and people really loved it.

Do you see that as kind of an entry point for you into the adult entertainment industry? How did that progression go?

I would like to push the envelope and it definitely was because I got more comfortable with my body and my sexuality and being on film and photographs and everything. I would get kicked off of Snapchat all the time because you would see my nipples through the mesh, so they were always taking down my sexy pictures. And so people were like, "You should start to have paid content." I was like, I don't know people are actually going to pay for this. I didn't think people would actually every month have a subscription to buy my stuff.

I said, you know what, I'll start a Patreon page. I really didn't know. So 18 months ago I started my own Patreon page, I didn't even announce it at first and I woke up the next morning and I was like there's like 50 people signed up and I never announced it yet. This is really weird. And they're paying fifteen to two hundred dollars a month. And then I announced it ... it was like twenty five hundred people were signed up and I was the number one adult creator. It was huge, I mean I couldn't believe the success that it was having and then I slowly went from there. Then I started to post the nudes and I did more solo stuff and I really enjoyed it and I found I was good at it and people liked it.

That positive feedback must have also egged you on to do more?

Absolutely. Also, I'm somebody who is very daring and I like to explore. About five years ago I did this photo shoot for Kiss a Ginger Day and it went on a lot of places. It wasn't an adult thing, but I did it with this adult star Elle Alexandra, she's a redhead. It was really cute and she was like, "You're really good at this," but I was like, "Oh, I don't know about that." Then I contacted her later and I brought her back on my Patreon and I said, "Let's do some girl-girl stuff. Let's let's have slumber party stuff." And then it went more sexual. And then I was finally like, "You know what, I want to [bring on a male partner]. I want to try this I really want to do it." So I kind of eased into that too. It just snowballed and I started making professional videos using professional photographers and videographers and it started getting even more popular.

Recently, I started an OnlyFans that has like 3,000 members or whatever. So it's just been a progression. But then, only like about four or five months ago, I had been approached by some people at the Vixen company who worked with Blacked.com and they really wanted to work with me and I finally I was like, you know what, they do really beautiful high end stuff. It's not like just sex tape quality. It's like produced. It's beautifully polished. They go on locations and the photoshoots with the girls like Vogue photoshoots. So I did Blacked.com. My scene when it came out, it was huge. It blew up.

Two days later they said they were looking -- because something happened with this feature that they were doing, this is like their award winning, wanting to win awards feature -- they needed a co-star. The director was Kayden Kross, she was a phenomenal adult star and she's has now this company Deeper.com that Vixen and acquired and she's won Director of the Year last year at AVN and she's really a solid filmmaker. She was looking for somebody -- something happened with the other lead who was in this movie -- and literally, two days after my scene for Blacked dropped, they were like, 'Talk to Maitland, she's an actress." So I met with Kayden at Starbucks and we signed on together to do that.

What was it about this project that you really liked?

I read the script and I was like, this is not a porn. I have more lines in this and dramatic lines than I've ever had. It's just like nothing you've seen. I had a name in comedy and I'm actually playing this totally twisted, just deeply dark, sensual character. This is a two hour, 15 minute feature, so it's like a full deal. I want to have highly-produced, well-acted, well-scripted stuff with the hot sex stuff. I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive. I don't know why that is that has always been a thing. I just wanted to be like a good product.

So you want a blockbuster movie with a really good sex scene?

That is my dream. I don't know why that's not achievable. I'm not saying kids are going to it, but can't adults enjoy a movie that is like, "Wow, I love the script ... Oh, that's a hot sex scene ... Wow we're going back to the script again." That's what my dream was and I always wanted to do that with a comic book kind of character that I made up and that's still maybe totally achievable. But when [the "Drive"] script dropped in my hand, I was like, this is actually really what kind of stuff that I want to do.

Were there concerns you had before really diving in -- or a point where you felt like you were making it clear decision to step away from mainstream?

No, there was no clear decision at any point. It was all tiptoes, over this five-year journey. It was all tiptoeing to the next thing, dipping my foot in the water. And each time I liked it, so I dipped more until I was just completely submerged. I'm not trying to step away from mainstream. If I was doing acting roles right now I know I wouldn't like the things being offered. They would not give me this sort of outlet and sexuality. What would I be? A soccer mom or something like that? I mean there's good stuff but I don't think that they would allow me to express myself in this way. Everyone's like, "Oh it's porn," but it's like art porn. I get to act in this thing, it's really good.

Also, it's interesting female directors are so prevalent. You would not imagine the amount of strong females that are behind the scenes on this. Everybody thinks it's just some seedy guys or whatever. It's not. Kayden is like this strong, beautiful female visionary director and I can name about five or so like that are that are award-winning directors and really powerhouses. That's what was surprising to me. And even how, the people who work in the Vixen offices, all these women that are these strong women who are editing and producing.

What do you see is like your five year plan? It seems ever-changing with you.

I think the five year plan would be working on stuff like this that can be both mainstream, porn together. I really do enjoy adult performing. I never knew it was in me to to perform like that or that I'd be good at it. You could put actresses or actors in and they wouldn't necessarily be able to have sex on camera and look good at it and be good at it. I saw this in me and I felt this in me that I had the ability to do that and convey that to the audience. There are mainstream people that make sex tapes and stuff, but are they award-winning quality? Do they have full grips?

And what is this comic character you want to do?

I don't want it to be like a superhero in the sense of like Wonder Woman or Superman, but more like Batman or someone who was thrust into their superhero status. [Batman's] not like a perfect person, he's flawed, things have happened to him bad in the past or whatever. This woman she uses her sexuality as her weapon and that being her superpower. It would be just very dark and kind of twisted, yet I like the fact that she can be dark and twisted but still have a vulnerability and humanity to it. Also very sensual. I just hope people would want to watch that story unfold every week, kind of like how the comic book shows are going now, like "Jessica Jones," the feeling of that. But it has the hot sexuality in it too.

People are like, "Guys don't want to watch a show they just want to see the sex." I know a lot of great, nerdy guys and people that follow me that I know would want to see me act in a series and see me having sex. I think that would be just a really cool thing.

We saw former "Boy Meets World" costar Trina McGee tweeted you the other day, saying "Go Lady," giving you support. How does that feel?

That is great, Trina is fantastic to me. Really, really cool giving me support. I've been surprised by the female support I've gotten from friends and stuff. I get girls I went to high school or college or I worked with on some project and they're just like, "You go. I'm so proud of you you're kicking ass." That really surprised me. People are like, "Do you get a backlash? Are you shamed?" I'm not shamed. Why would I be shamed? I'm kicking ass. I make great money, I make great projects, I'm proud of it. I don't receive that much backlash.

It's funny, I get a lot of comments, when I put up pieces that say "Boy Meets World" or "Former 'Boy Meets World' Star," and people write me, "You were on 'Boy Meets World'? I loved that show." You would be surprised at how often I get that. They were following me because of other things!

Is there anything else you want to plug or say to the fans?

There's going to be more stuff like coming up with Blacked.com and Vixen and some other feature-type projects that are going to be hot and pornographic, but they're also going to be really well done. I have to thank the fans, I've had such a loyal following throughout this entire journey. From when I first started getting popular on social media -- aside from the "Boy Meets World" -- when I was doing cosplay and stuff like that and they stayed with me. I have really loyal fans and I'm just so grateful and humbled.

"Drive" is out now.