Drake Bell said he found Nickelodeon’s response to Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV “pretty empty” in his first interview following the airing of the bombshell docuseries. In Quiet on Set, Bell alleged he was sexually abused by All That and The Amanda Show dialogue coach Brian Peck beginning when he was age 15 while he working as a child star at the network.
Bell spoke about his allegations and its aftermath in a new episode of The Sarah Fraser Show podcast as Variety reports. Bell got his break as a series regular on Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show in 1999 before starring in Drake & Josh alongside Josh Peck (no relation to Brian Peck) in 2004.
“There’s a very well-tailored response saying, ‘Learning about his trauma,’ because they couldn’t say that they didn’t know about this or what had happened, or anything,” Bell said on the podcast. “So I think that was a really well-tailored response by probably some big attorney in Hollywood.”
“I find it pretty empty, their responses, because, I mean, they still show our shows, they still put our shows on,” he continued. “And I have to pay for my own therapy, I have to figure out what — I mean if there was anything, if there was any truth behind them actually caring, there would be something more than quotes on a page by obviously a legal representative telling them exactly how to tailor a response.”
Shortly before the docuseries aired, a Nickelodeon spokesperson told Rolling Stone in a statement: “Now that Drake Bell has disclosed his identity as the plaintiff in the 2004 case, we are dismayed and saddened to learn of the trauma he has endured, and we commend and support the strength required to come forward.”
The network spokesperson added: “Though we cannot corroborate or negate allegations of behaviors from productions decades ago, Nickelodeon as a matter of policy investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace environment free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct. Our highest priorities are the well-being and best interests not just of our employees, casts, and crew, but of all children, and we have adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience.”
Bell said during the podcast that he participated in the docuseries because he found one of the directors, Emma Schwartz to be “very sensitive” and he “could tell she was coming from a genuine place” as they interacted via email. Following meeting Schwartz in person, Bell said he went to rehab.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Quiet on Set co-director Schwartz spoke about working with Bell on the series. “He’s told me that he feels like a certain weight has lifted,” Schwartz said. “He’s been holding this back for so long and that hopefully in sharing it, he can continue to heal and to let people know that sharing is not as scary as it might seem. It can, in fact, help you walk forward.”
“I just felt really comfortable in that interview [with Schwartz], but I was going through so much in my personal life and after that interview I ended up checking myself into rehab,” Bell said in the podcast interview. “We were going through a lot of trauma therapy, a lot of group therapy, a lot of one-on-one therapy — your entire day was filled with working through and processing this with a clear mind, and unearthing all of these things that I hadn’t faced head-on, or if I had tried to, it was too painful. And so through that process, once I got out, I thought to myself, ‘Maybe this is a good time to reach back out to them and say, hey, I’m not 100 percent yet, let’s talk some more, but I’m getting closer to feeling comfortable with finally sharing my story.’”
Brian Peck was arrested on 11 charges of child sexual abuse in 2003, and in 2004 pleaded no contest to two charges of child sexual abuse. He was sentenced to 16 months in jail and was ordered to register as a sex offender. The identity of the accuser was not known at the time, but it has since been revealed as Bell.