Why Danielle Fishel Says Being on ‘DWTS’ Reminds Her of ‘Boy Meets World’ (Exclusive)

Danielle Fishel is getting a blast from the past while competing on Dancing with the Stars.

Following her second week on the ABC series, the 44-year-old actress tells PEOPLE she is used to the pressure of performing in front of a live audience — especially since she used to do it all the time on Boy Meets World.

“I’m good under pressure and I’m a performer,” Fishel explains.

“I haven’t been in front of the camera performing for a very long time. I didn’t know if I was going to feel rusty or if I was going to know what to do anymore,” she continues. “But literally the minute the audience loads in, and I get that feeling like it’s 1994 again and there’s an audience of 250 people on the set of Boy Meets World.”

Fishel adds that, when “it’s live show night, I just come alive from the inside.”

Her dance partner, Pasha Pashkov, quickly caught on to how the crowd impacts the actress.

Pashkov, 39, tells PEOPLE that while Fishel often goes “full out during our runs,” she surpasses his expectations when the live filming for the show begins.

“When the audience is there, she from somewhere — she pulls another extra 50% and I’m like, ‘Who is this?’” Pashkov jokes. “And I mean, it’s amazing.”

The mother of two admits that her energy switch from practice to taping drives her dance partner “a little nuts,” but she’s slowly getting accustomed to the new atmosphere. 

“I feel like I have the hang of the show a little bit more now,” she says. “I still really need to work on giving a full, really good performance before the live show, but as an actor for my entire life, I come alive when I know it counts.”

The Pod Meets World podcaster knows that the show must go on, even with injuries. She shared on the Sept. 23 episode that she recently sustained a hamstring tear while getting a deep tissue massage that “broke every blood vessel” in the back of her leg.

“I snapped a tendon in my hamstring,” she explained. “I had a meeting with a surgeon, and I don’t need surgery, so it’s just a matter of rehabbing it and taking care of it.” As it heals, she noted that Pashkov was “going to choreograph around that right leg for a week to give me a little bit of a rest.”

“I was only going to leave here because of an injury if they brought me out on a stretcher,” she added.

Despite the injury, Fishel and Pashkov earned a 19/30 on their Cha Cha, making it to the next round: TikTok night.

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Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+.