In his first major public appearance since the premiere of ID’s Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Drake Bell opened up about “being in the fire” after sharing his story of sexual abuse for the first time.
Bell appeared at an FYC screening of the docuseries in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, which was followed by a panel discussion that included Bell, All That alums Bryan Hearne and Giovonnie Samuels, and Quiet on Set filmmakers Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz. During the discussion, Bell was asked how he knew it was the right time to come forward about the repeated sexual abuse he survived as a teenager at the hands of Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck.
“Oh, I didn’t know,” Bell began, before revealing that he had been approached by another documentary years ago that he ultimately turned down. At the time, he said, “I just was not in a place where I wanted to talk about this or put it out into the world or anything. So I expressed that, and the response was unbelievable. I mean, they wrote back to me saying, ‘Because of people like you, there are going to be more children hurt in the industry. You need to speak out, otherwise this is going to continue.’ I was like, did you really just say that to me? I was just shocked. So when Emma reached out, I was very on guard. I was going, I know how this goes. I’ve been there. I was totally going to ignore it.”
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Eventually, though, Bell started reluctantly responding to Schwartz’s messages and agreed to meet up with the director in person, where the floodgates opened. “It was the first time I’d really spoken about this to a stranger,” Bell recalled. The actor added that, over the years, he was continually shocked that the criminal behavior of men like Peck and Jason Handy—a former Nickelodeon PA who was convicted for child abuse and child pornography in 2004—was never exposed in the press.
“You have two people working on the same show within a matter of months getting arrested for unspeakable and horrific things. I mean, if I was a reporter, I’d be frothing at the mouth for that story, to illuminate it and put it everywhere,” Bell said. “There were years that I would go and Google and be like, ‘I wonder who’s written about this story?’ And it was nowhere. You couldn’t find anything on Brian. There was one Daily Mail article like five years ago. And I just was so perplexed by that.”
“This,” he continued about the reception to Quiet on Set, “is the response that I feel should’ve happened so many years ago.”
The other “catalyst” that inspired him to share his story, Bell said, was Schwartz telling him that he would be able to read the dozens of letters that were filed to support Peck at his sentencing in 2004.
“When she was able to tell me that she got the letters unsealed and that I’d be able to read them, that’s what really just hit me in my heart” Bell said. “I didn’t know the extent of the support until I saw the letters.”
Drake Bell speaks on a panel for “Quiet on Set”
Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images for Investigation DiscoveryOver the phone, Bell and Schwartz started going through some of the names of people who wrote letters. In Quiet on Set, viewers learn that James Marsden and Boy Meets World alum Will Friedle were among those who wrote letters for Peck—but those weren’t the names that hit Bell the hardest.
“And then she started getting to names that I was going, whoa, whoa, wait, what? I just went, Emma, please tell me they didn’t write letters. Please,” he said. “This person was my favorite director that I worked with. I requested him on Drake & Josh—and this was written prior to working on Drake & Josh. And I’m going, wait, he wrote a letter? And this person who I ended up working with on Drake & Josh every day for four years and was basically like my boss who I had to answer to, she wrote a letter? It just started blowing my mind.”
He continued, “It showed me that there was way more to this than just these certain people you have to watch out for. That it’s like a whole group… everyone’s connected and supporting and rehiring. So that’s when it started to snowball into, all right, this story needs to get out because this is a much bigger issue than I had ever imagined.”
Reflecting on the weeks of discourse and discussion around Quiet on Set, Bell admitted he’s still “reeling” with the reaction, even though he has “fond memories” of his time as a child actor.
“I don’t, you know, watch episodes of Drake & Josh in horror and go, ‘Oh man, this was this terrible time in my life,’” he said. “I love to look back and watch Drake & Josh episodes and Amanda Show episodes and I laugh and I can’t wait to share it with my son.
“But I’m in the thick of it right now. I’m in the fire right now,” he continued. “I’m still kind of reeling with the idea of my soul being bared to the world. But you see such good coming out of [it]. People were approaching me at the airport on my way here and telling me their stories and how they have the bravery to come out and speak. … Hollywood’s a beautiful place full of fantasy and imagination and fun, but it’s also a completely dark cesspool of disgusting waste. So I’m hoping that we see the shifts and the changes inside the industry that are needed.”
