'Boy Meets World' actress is now a porn star: 'I need to do this'

Former "Boy Meets World" star Maitland Ward is opening up about her "authentic journey" into porn.

The actress, who starred on the ABC sitcom as Rachel McGuire from 1998 until 2000, was interviewed by InTouch Weekly ahead of the release of her first adult film, "Drive," and explained that the it was the film's "well-written" script that got her to ultimately make the jump into adult entertainment.

"They asked me to be a part of this, and I thought, ‘I never knew there was anything in adults or porn or whatever that was this well done.’ I read the script, and I was like, ‘This is really, really well-written,'" she explained. "This has so many themes in this and just my character is so different than anything I have portrayed before."

Maitland told InTouch that her transition into pornography "started slowly."

"It all started when I started doing cosplay, which I really genuinely love doing and people started giving me attention for it, and I wore sexy outfits," she revealed. "I have always sort of been an exhibitionist, like always. I love dressing sexy in public and things like that."

See photos of Maitland Ward then and now:

She added that it all happened fairly recently and, while she doesn't think her fans have seen her "like this before," she's exited about the prospect of where this new kind of filmmaking could take her career.

"I started doing this kind of film, professional stuff, not very long ago -- only a couple months ago. I felt ready. It wasn’t like I was saying, ‘Oh, I want to do this all along,’ but it was like, ‘I need to do this.’ I really feel that quality stuff and the hot sex stuff can be together, and I really want that," she explained. "I hope my past and stuff can add any legitimacy to a great project, to get attention or to get people to actually watch and say, ‘Oh yeah, it is really good.'"

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"It’s been an evolution. It’s all been my authentic journey because everything that I have done along the way is something I wanted to explore and do, and I just did it publicly for my fans, that is the exhibitionist style of me," she continued. "I wanted to take them along for the journey, and it’s been a really fun, crazy adventure and there is still stuff to explore."

Maitland, whose other projects have included "White Chicks," "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "Boston Public," expressed that she has no qualms or shame about becoming an adult film star, explaining that she has never felt more herself than she does now.

"I kind of don’t give a f—k anymore. I want to be who I am, and I just think as I have matured too, I am who I am," she declared. "I want my cellulite to be sexy. Of course, there are days you don’t want to. I don’t do it every day. If I am feeling like crap, I am not going to go run out in the streets naked, you know?"

Read Maitland Ward's full interview with InTouch Weekly here.