Upon the release of the docuseries Quiet On The Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Drake & Josh star Drake Bell revealed that he was sexually assaulted by Brian Peck. Peck was a dialect coach for Nickelodeon and was convicted of sexual abuse and was sentenced to 16 months in prison. During a point of his trial, the docu-series revealed the names of people who wrote letters in support of Peck to be considered in the sentencing, and according to Deadline, Bell has yet to receive apologies from anyone who was on the list.
41 people in total were on the list of those who wrote in support of Peck. The docu-series revealed that the list included actors such as Taran Killam (Saturday Night Live), James Marsden (Jury Duty), Will Friedle (Boy Meets World), and Rider Strong (Boy Meets World). Bell then stated in an interview that he has yet to hear anything from anyone on the list and no apologies have been sent his way.
“I haven’t gotten an apology, or a sorry, from anybody that had written letters or was involved in supporting him at all,” Bell said in an interview where he revealed that he did not know of the letters until those producing the docu-series petitioned to unseal the documents. “I learned that later, I mean, there were multiple people that had supported him that went on to work on Drake & Josh.”
Bell continued, “And I worked with these people every day, and I thought they were my friends. They were people in positions of power, that they were my bosses. They were directors, they were producers. It was a situation where I thought I was surrounded by, I thought I was safe. I thought, OK, I thought I got rid of, the cancer has been carved out, we’re better now. And I had no idea that for four years, I was working alongside people who had supported him, and probably in the back of their mind were thinking of me in a certain way, and I thought they were my friends.”
Although he has not heard anything directly from those on the list, Tom DeSanto (X-Men) did release a statement to People magazine. In his statement, he explained that the letter that he wrote in support of Peck was “based on incomplete information” and “lacked full awareness of the gravity of the accusations.” Upon this, DeSanto did publicly apologize to Bell, and stated to the actor that if he “had been fully informed of all the accusations, my support would have been absolutely withheld.”
Bell then responded to the statement, “This is a very, very tough thing for everyone involved, and that’s what happens when people like Brian do what they do — it creates a ripple effect. And so that was really cool of him to do.”
Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is streaming on MAX.