Former teen idol Joey Lawrence regrets that he and his two famous brothers used a stage name, revealing that changing their last name has become a “pain in the butt.”
Joey, 48, Matthew, 45, and Andrew Lawrence, 37, entered the entertainment business as kids and decided to use a different surname instead of his legal name Mignogna, according to a report in Entertainment Weekly.
“[Lawrence] was my middle name,” Joey, who was born Joseph Lawrence Mignogna, said during a panel at ‘90s Con in Hartford, Conn. on Friday.
“So I was named after our dad and our grandfather on our dad’s side. And in the early ’80s, it was like, ‘No one can pronounce Mignogna. That’s not a name people will say.’”
The brothers admitted that navigating the industry would have been “easier” if they had kept their last name given at birth.
“It’s really a pain in the butt, honestly, having two names,” Andrew confessed during the panel. “You have to prove you’re both people.”
Matthew added that travel has been a nightmare, revealing that he’s faced trouble traveling across the globe.
“Now I’m just stuck with two different names, and I can’t travel internationally,” Matthew said. “For a while there, the government only recognized me as Matt Lawrence because I paid taxes from the time I was a toddler to 18 as Matt Lawrence. But really, my name is Matthew William Mignogna. So when I grew up and used my real name on my passport, there was absolutely no correlation. I didn’t exist.”
Joey admitted that their name change probably wouldn’t have happened if they had joined the entertainment industry during the current era.
“Today, things like that are celebrated,” Joey said. “In the ’80s, it was like, ‘We’re going to need to water this down. There are silent Gs.’ Because you spell our last name [Mignogna] like filet mignon.’ So they were like, ‘Let’s call him Joey Lawrence.’ So that’s just what they did, and with these guys, it just made sense.”
But there are some perks to keeping their real last name out of the public eye.
Their parents knew the fake name could have made it difficult for obsessed fans to locate the former child stars.
“I also think my parents, and wisely so, [knew] there was an insulation factor, where, before the internet, you could hide behind that at, you know, at school,” Matthew shared. “Some people might check in old-school ways, but it would be very, very hard to find us.”
Joey got his start in the entertainment business in the ‘80s by acting in“Diff’rent Strokes” and “Oliver & Company.”
He then became a teen heartthrob in the ‘90s when he was cast in “Blossom” and “Brotherly Love.”
Matthew Lawrence played Chris Hillard in the 1993 comedy “Mrs. Doubtfire,” Jack Hunter in “Boy Meets World” and Billy in “The Hot Chick.”
Andrew is known for being the voice of Theodore J. “T.J.” Deweiler in the animated series “Recess” and Eric Russo in “Hawaii Five-0.”
