Backlash For Quiet On Set? Former Nickelodeon Star Alleges She Was Included Despite Denying Permission As Christy Carlson Romano Calls Doc Team 'Trauma Tourists'
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Investigation Discovery’s docuseries Quiet on Set (available to stream with a Max subscription) sparked a lot of conversations about child actors’ safety at Nickelodeon during the years of writer/producer Dan Schneider’s creative reign in the 2000s. But while some may have seen the project through an advocacy prism initially, issues have arisen. Most recently, a podcaster and financial expert claims her interview with former child star Jennette McCurdy was used against their wishes, while Even Stevens vet Christy Carlson Romano had some harsh words for those who developed the project.
Requests To Use That Jennette McCurdy Clip Were Allegedly Denied
Following the initial airing of Quiet on Set, which was popular enough to spark production on an additional episode, Marc Summers claimed his appearance in the doc was under false pretenses, and that he vacated the interview after finding out. More recently, The Financial Diet CEO and The Financial Confessions host Chelsea Fagan took to TikTok to explain that she was previously unaware that a snippet from her 2022 interview with former iCarly star Jenette McCurdy (who goes unnamed in the social post) appeared during an episode of Quiet on Set, saying that she’d denied the producers’ initial requests. In her words:
I did not want to make this video, and in fact, as of this morning have spent thousands of dollars in legal fees to attempt to come to a resolution that did not involve me making this video, but so far that’s gotten me basically nowhere, so here we are. . . . For context, I interviewed a former child actor a few years ago on my show primarily to talk about the finances of child stardom, as my podcast is focused on money. But, at a few points in the conversation, the former child actor did touch on a few of the subjects that are covered in the documentary. In September of last year, I was approached about a then-unnamed documentary about child actors looking to license some of the content from that aforementioned interview.
McCurdy's podcast appearance happened around seven months before she released her controversially titled memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died, at which point she talked a lot about leaving acting behind, and the reactions she got from people who didn't understand her decisions.
Chelsea Fagan says her team replied to the production company asking for more information, which apparently wasn't easy to get out of anyone. So she also attempted to contact McCurdy directly to see if she'd already turned ID's requestsion down. Here's how she put it:
I scheduled a call with the production company and simultaneously reached out via email to the former child actor asking if this is something that they would ever be okay with having licensed. And more importantly, flagging that there was a production company going around and looking for clips of them talking about this subject on the record. . . . We sent an email to the production company in 2023 saying that, A. we declined to have any portion of this interview used in the documentary, and B. given that it seems, as far as we could tell, that this former child actor has declined to participate, that it would be highly unethical to do so on her behalf.
While she had not heard back yet from the Empty Inside host, Fagan stated that she did soon hear from the former actress' publicist, who shared that they had not given anyone permission to use any clips. The entire TikTok clipped can be viewed below.
All that said, it's unclear if Investigation Discovery's producers would even need personal permission to use publicly available audio and/or video. It's possible the initial reach-out request was more of a polite formality rather than something that would affect anyone's decisions. But we shall see where things go from here.
Christy Carlson Romano's Comments About Quiet On Set
Many child actors-turned-stars weighed in on the Quiet on Set footage, with Melissa Joan Hart and Kenan Thompson sharing their stories, namely that their Nickelodeon times weren't so salacious, as they were both gone before Dan Schneider arrived. Though she was a Disney Channel gal, Christy Carlson Romano spoke quite openly about the ID docuseries, despite saying she still hasn't seen it and likely never will.
Romano appears as a guest in the latest episode of the podcast Mayim's Mental Breakdown, where she talked to fellow child-acting vets Mayim Bialik and Jenna Von Oy about growing up in the biz. She claims she was approached years ago by plenty of producers about potential documentary appearances after she'd pushed for her podcast and YouTube videos to be more advocacy-focused. Here's how she put it:
I've chosen not to speak about this with anybody, including ID, who originally came to me looking to see if I'd be interested in a doc like this. I don't know if it was this doc [Quiet on Set]. But I was approached when I first started advocating three years ago for my own YouTube channel with my own experiences that I did in different and separate episodes, so to speak. I started to be approached by many reality-show-type producers, and they were like, 'Hey, how do we do this?' and I would combat them with saying, 'Hey, guys, the only way we would do this is if we talk about how do we fix it?'
Romano brought up Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Cheaper by the Dozen co-star Alyson Stoner as her inspiration for using her film studies major to recognize when TV and film documentaries are using clear tactics to manipulate audiences and/or the subjects. She continued, calling out such perceived predatory behavior.
These are people who don't belong to our community. These are outsiders. And maybe they, maybe if they knew where to put money towards [fixing] a problem, they would, but again, a lot of this has been perceived in a way that's — it's outside baseball. It's not inside baseball, it's outside baseball. These are trauma tourists.
"Trauma tourists" is not a nickname to take lightly within this world, and it's certainly not good to pick up a reputation for being one. But of course these are just Christy Carlson Romano's words, and aren't meant to represent everyone who's dealt with the Quiet on Set filmmakers. They did get Drake Bell's first on-screen admission about his own sexual abuse, as well as some past All That cast members who were willing to open up about their less-than-savory experiences. But if more situations like this come to light, perhaps there's weight to the idea that the producers created an imbalance
