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"It was like the 20-mile walk," the actor recalled of crossing a hotel lobby to greet the mother of the murdered young man he was playing in the TV movie The Matthew Shepard Story.
Meier had just had hair extensions attached, giving him an even more striking physical resemblance to Shepard, the 21-year-old gay university student brutally beaten and left to die on a Wyoming fence in October 1998.
Shepard's mother, who established a foundation to honour her son and fight hate crimes in his name, had just arrived in Toronto to spend a few days on the set of the film, which finished shooting the first week of June. She and Meier were scheduled to meet there the next day. Instead, their paths crossed by chance -- and there was no chance of their not recognizing each other.
Earlier, director Roger Spottiswoode had tried to prepare his young star for Shepard's possible reaction to that resemblance, warning him, "She's seeing her son whom she hasn't seen in years."
"So that, of course, was making me more nervous. I was a nervous wreck all day," said Meier, who just turned 24 but looks younger. "I didn't know what to do or how to act, or if she was going to accept me or not, or break down."
In the end, both of them were moved and more than a little shaken. He told her how much he respects the work she does in her son's memory. She couldn't take her eyes off him.
"She said, 'Wow, they were right. You're a dead ringer.' ... And she just kept shaking my hand and shaking my hand."
This was the Vancouver-based actor's second chance to tell the story of Matthew, whom he describes as "just the nicest kid around." He'd auditioned last year for the lead in Anatomy Of A Hate Crime, a film made without any major stars and on the cheap for MTV.
When the opportunity arose again, it came with Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston cast as Shepard's mother and father, Alliance Atlantis and Goldie Hawn among the producers, a bigger budget, a pre-sale to NBC and the Shepard family's approval.
"I would have done this for pennies. I would have volunteered for this," insisted Meier, who is especially hopeful that his younger fans will hear the movie's message. Starring roles in kids favourites Call Of The Wild and Silver Wolf are among his nearly 50 film and TV roles since he got his start at age 13 playing the young MacGyver.
"I want to educate people, and you have to start young. You have to get the kids when they're in school and teach them that not everybody is like you and me," he said. "Everybody's different. The people who can't accept that are the people who go about these hate crimes."