Melissa Joan Hart has addressed the Quiet On Set docuseries and its allegations of sexism, abuse, and overall toxicity that some former child actors and employees experienced while working for Nickelodeon.
Hart, who got her start in the industry as the star of Nickelodeon’s Clarissa Explains It All, said on the Meghan McCain Has Entered The Chat podcast this week that even though she hasn’t seen the series and didn’t have the same types of experiences at the network, she “absolutely” believes the former Nick stars who came forward, “100 percent.”
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to address it on social,” she said, “But I have not seen the documentary.”
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Even though she had never heard any of the other kid actors’ allegations before, Hart said that doesn’t negate their truth. “I don’t know their stories, I’ve never been told these people’s stories that are in the documentary. I’ve never heard a story from a Nickelodeon star personally—no one’s come to me and talked to me about any of the situations,” she said, but “I’m not negating anything anyone else says,” adding, “I absolutely trust them, believe them, one hundred percent.”
Clarissa Explains It All began filming when Hart was 13 years old and ran from 1991 to 1994. During that time, she says, “I had nothing but a wonderful experience.” She was often alone without her mother while filming but she never felt unsafe while working for the network.
“I was surrounded by an amazing crew, an incredible cast that took such good care of me. I mean, these people were protective of me,” she added. “A lot of the time, my mother wasn’t around because she had other kids in New York. One of my sisters was doing a Broadway show on a cruise ship. She was juggling all of us all over the place so I was left alone a lot, but I felt very protected and very safe.”
Ultimately, Hart stressed on the podcast that “not every egg in the Nickelodeon basket is rotten,” and speculates that her differing experience could have been because she worked out of Orlando instead of Hollywood. “I don’t know if it was the difference in Orlando or the time period or whoever these [accused] guys were, they weren't around,” she said, but in her experience, “There were some good eggs” at Nick.
“We worked in Florida which was a right-to-work state, so they did work the kids a lot harder than they probably legally should,” she continued. “We had a ton of fun. It was just long hours, that’s all.”
Hart plans to see the much-buzzed about docuseries soon, she said, calling not seeing yet “a mistake.”
“I keep meaning to but at night when I go to bed I’m like eh—Friends,” she quipped, “I don’t wanna do that right now, I’ll get all worked up.”
