After Drake Bell opened up about the sexual abuse he endured while at Nickelodeon on Investigation Discovery’s Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV documentary, his Drake & Josh co-star Josh Peck is finally breaking his silence. On the documentary, which is streaming on Max, Bell went into detail about how a dialogue coach sexually assaulted him for months when he was only 15 years old. After the documentary aired, fans went after Peck for not saying anything about it and even thought that a TikTok he had posted was mocking his former co-star.
Bell then came to his on-screen stepbrother’s defense and said that Peck had reached out to him privately. The Grandfathered actor took to Instagram himself to share a statement about the documentary, reiterating that he did reach out to Bell privately but wanted to give his public support to all who shared their stories and were suffering.
“I finished the Quiet On Set documentary and took a few days to process it,” Peck explained. “I reached out to Drake privately, but want 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. 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.”
Many former Nickelodeon stars have been giving their thoughts on the documentary. All in support of the victims, with some even sharing their own traumatic experiences. Josh Peck isn’t even the only Drake & Josh star to share a statement. Nancy Sullivan, who also worked with both Peck and Bell on The Amanda Show, took to Instagram to share a heartfelt message about how it broke her heart “into a million pieces to heart just how much Drake was holding inside while we were working together.” She also said she hopes “memories of the joy he had on our shows will someday greatly overshadow the pain.”
The Quiet on Set documentary is a tough watch that touches on many difficult topics. There is definitely no right or wrong way to address it, especially for a Nickelodeon star who had a similar experience. It is nice to know that Josh Peck did reach out to Drake Bell, especially since Bell said that filming Drake & Josh helped him through the whole thing.