UPDATE: 3/21 16:05 p.m. ET
Josh Peck released a statement of support for Drake Bell after watching Investigation Discovery’s Quiet on Set docuseries.
“I finished the Quiet On Set documentary and took a few days to process it,” Peck wrote via Instagram on Thursday, March 21. “I reached out to Drake privately, but wanted to give my support for the survivors who were brave enough to share their stories of emotional and physical abuse on Nickelodeon sets with the world.”
He continued: “Children should be protected. Reliving this publicly is incredibly difficult, but I hope it can bring healing for the victims and their families as well as necessary change to our industry.”
Original story below:
Drake Bell shared that Josh Peck has gotten in touch with him following the release of the bombshell Quiet on Set docuseries.
“I want to clear something up. I’ve noticed a lot of comments on some of Josh’s TikToks and some of his posts and I just want to let you guys know … processing this and going through this is a really emotional time and a lot of it is very difficult,” Bell, 37, said via TikTok on Wednesday, March 20. “So not everything is put out to the public. But I want you guys to know that he has reached out to me.”
Bell noted that opening up about the abuse he suffered throughout his time on Nickelodeon has been a “very sensitive” matter for him, explaining that he’s had trouble sharing his story. However, Bell was appreciative that Peck, 37, checked on him privately.
“He has reached out to talk to me and help me work through this,” Bell added. “And he’s been really great.”
Bell encouraged his followers to “take it a little easy” on his former Drake & Josh costar, who has yet to publicly comment on the documentary.
The four-part docuseries, which premiered on Sunday, March 17, detailed the toxic work environment at Nickelodeon in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. The series focused on the rise and fall of creator Dan Schneider and other instances of abuse on set.
Bell was the subject of two episodes, coming forward about his sexual misconduct lawsuit against dialogue coach Brian Peck (who has no relation to Josh). Brian, 63, was arrested in August 2003 after he was accused of sexually abusing a then-unnamed child, now confirmed to be Bell. Brian pleaded no contest to performing a lewd act with a victim around 14 or 15 years old and to oral copulation with a child under 16 years old, which resulted in a 16-month prison sentence.
In the doc, Bell broke his silence about being groomed and assaulted by Brian, whom he met while working on All That as a teenager.
“I really don’t know how to elaborate on that on camera. … Why don’t you think of the worst stuff someone can do to somebody as a sexual assault and that will answer your question,” Bell said. “I don’t know how else to put it. It was not a one-time thing.”
Josh and Bell starred on All That together before they got their own series, Drake & Josh. While the duo were initially close friends, they had a falling out after the show ended in 2007. Tension arose in June 2017 when Bell wasn’t invited to Josh’s wedding to Paige O’Brien, but Bell revealed to Us Weekly two months later that all was good between the former coworkers.
“We’re actually closer than we’ve been in a while … It’s totally great. It’s all love. We’re brothers, man,” the musician told Us in September 2017. “We’ve been working together for 18 years, maybe even longer now. So we’ve had our ups, we’ve had our downs, it’s like we’re real brothers. It’s kind of that sibling rivalry and sibling love and it’s the whole thing.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
