Drake Bell supports Josh Peck amid backlash against ‘silent’ Drake & Josh co-star
‘I just want to clear something up,’ Bell said in wake of ‘Quiet on Set’ abuse clams
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Your support makes all the difference.Drake Bell has revealed that his Drake & Josh co-star Josh Peck has contacted him about his allegations of sexual abuse while working for Nickelodeon.
Bell is being supported after coming forward with his alleged experience in new documentary series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.
The actor says he suffered the abuse aged 15 at the hands of actor and dialogue coach Brian Peck, a claim that “devastated” Dan Schneider, who was the kids channel’s executive producer at the time.
Peck has since received a barrage of fan backlash for staying silent on the subject, but Bell – who called out Boys Meets World stars for not apologising for their support of Brian Peck – has stepped in to quash this claim after noticing nasty messages being posted about his co-star on social media.
“I just want to clear something up,” he said in a new video shared online. “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 that processing this and going through this is a really emotional time and a lot of it is very, very difficult.”
The actor continued, “So not everything is put out to the public, but I just want you guys to know that he [Peck] has reached out to me, and it’s been very sensitive.
“But he has reached out to talk with me and help me work through this and has been really, really great. So I just wanted to let you guys know that and to take it a little easy on him.”
In August 2003, Brian Peck, who is not related to Josh, was arrested on more than a dozen charges related to sexual abuse allegations involving an unnamed minor.
A year later, he pleaded no contest to performing a lewd act with a 14 or 15-year-old and to oral copulation with a minor under 16. Brian Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender in October 2004.
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, a four-part docuseries investigating the toxic work conditions at children’s shows in the 1990s and early 2000s, aired on 17 and 18 March.
It’s available to stream on Max and Discovery+.