Variety reports that in the most recent installment of ID’s documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Drake Bell (All That, Drake & Josh) is sharing more of his story. The fifth episode, titled “Breaking the Silence,” debuted on Sunday, April 7th. Bell spoke with host Soledad O’Brien (Zoolander 2, Queen & Slim) about his experiences since coming forward for the first time to report that he had been allegedly sexually assaulted by Brian Peck (Forever Strong, X2).
In particular, O’Brien questioned Bell who was virtually present from Mexico City about Rider Strong (Boy Meets World, Cabin Fever) and Will Friedle (Thundercats, Transformers: Robots in Disguise), the two actors who penned character letters for Peck in the 2003 case. Bell claimed that hearing their remarks about the choice to do so on their podcast did not alter his feelings regarding that day in court.
As Variety notes, Bell stated on Sunday’s episode: “I worked with Will on Spider-Man and there was a lot of opportunity to apologize or talk about it and [he] never did, but also, it’s a very difficult subject to bring up, especially in a work environment, that’s the thing that’s hard about this — everyone deals with their trauma in different ways, everybody comes to different conclusions at different times in their lives and realizations. I really appreciate their perspective now, but that day is so ingrained in my mind, nobody’s reached out to me.”
Variety claims that prior to the documentary’s release, Friedle and Strong discussed their encounter with Peck on Pod Meets World, where they acknowledged that they had been duped and coerced into feeling terrible and on “the wrong side of everything.” They were unaware of Peck’s crimes at the time, nor did they know Bell was the victim.
According to Variety, the documentary disclosed that over forty individuals, such as Taran Killam (Saturday Night Live, Why We’re Killing Gunther), James Marsden (Hairspray, Enchanted), and Alan Thicke (Growing Pains, Raising Helen), had penned character letters for Peck. Bell reaffirmed: “Not one person who’s written one of those letters” has reached out to him.
Bell released a statement on X about Strong reaching out: “I just had the most amazing conversation with @RiderStrong we are all healing together. I have nothing but love and forgiveness for him.”
The child actor commented on the documentary being “very hard to watch” and spoke about the accusations made aga
He stated, via Variety, “I can only speak from my experience, and I can’t take away from anyone else’s experience, I can just say that during this time with Brian, Dan was really the only one from the network that even made an effort to help me and make sure I was okay.”
Bell acknowledged in the special that his time in rehab and group therapy were key factors in his current success: “Obviously, things like DUIs and choices I made in my life, they’re choices I made on my own so I do have to take accountability and responsibility for those things but it’s really eye opening to get down to, what’s the root cause? Where is this coming from?”
Bell also replied to people criticizing his mother on social media for not shielding him more: “If you were in that situation at that time, he was so good at what he was doing. He was so calculated, he knew exactly what to say, how to say it, what to do, the image to portray, everything, I completely understand how he just pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. It’s tragic.”