Drake Bell discusses massive response to his ‘Quiet on Set’ revelations: ‘We have to tell the world about this, and this needs to change’ [WATCH]

Drake Bell, the “The Amanda Show” and “Drake & Josh” star who speaks out publicly for the first time about the sexual abuse he endured from Brian Peck (who worked as a dialogue coach on Nickelodeon’s “Amanda Show” and “All That”) in the Investigation Discovery and Max series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” told a packed FYC screening and panel event Tuesday night at the Saban Media Center in North Hollywood that the overwhelming response to the five-part docuseries that premiered March 17 is what he feels “should have happened years ago.”

Watch the full panel discussion above.

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Flanked on the panel (moderated by culture writer and author Scaachi Koul) by filmmakers Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz as well as senior correspondent Kate Taylor of Business Insider and fellow onetime Nickelodeon child actors Giovannie Samuels and Bryan Hearne (who were regulars on the kids comedy-variety series “All That” in the early 2000s), Bell talked about how he had been approached to tell his story years before but declined the invitation. “Hollywood’s very small,” he said, “and especially when you work on shows with people, you become sort of like a family, and people talk. I was just not in a place where I wanted to talk about this or put it out into the world or anything, so I expressed that and the response was unbelievable. They wrote back to me saying that, ‘Because of people like you, there’s going to be more children hurt in the industry. You need to speak out, otherwise this is going to continue.’ I was just shocked.”

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When the “Quiet on Set” filmmakers reached out, Bell admits he was “very on guard..I was totally going to ignore it. I was struggling a lot at that point in my life.” But he ultimately decided to participate and go public with his shocking revelations after reading many of the unsealed letters of support for Peck, his abuser who was arrested and, following a 2004 trial, served a prison sentence of just 16 months. The people who put their name to supporting “and helping and rehiring” Peck “just started blowing my mind. And it showed me that there was way more to this than just these certain people you have to watch out for. And that’s when it started to snowball into, all right, this story needs to get out because this is a much bigger issue than I’d ever imagined.”

That issue forms the crux of “Quiet on Set.” The docuseries has sparked a massive response for its depiction of Nickelodeon productions presided over by mega-producer Dan Schneider as toxic workspaces where the child actors and adult crew members lived in fear of Schneider’s retribution – and where, in a few cases, pedophiles were enabled. The series, which added a fifth installment on April 7 to address the giant reaction to the first four parts, has quickly spiraled into a phenomenon sparking calls for change in the industry. It’s been seen by an estimated audience of some 20 million.

Bell pretty much has the third part of the doc to himself as he painfully, and in fits and starts, tells his wrenching story. His primary issue in the wake of his own experience was that the appalling/criminal behavior has been allowed to persist on the sets where vulnerable children and juveniles are hired to perform – and that the media has largely ignored it until now. “My biggest concern here is that you have two people working on the same show who within a matter of  months get arrested for unspeakable and horrific things,” he says, referring to Peck and Jason Handy, a former production assistant on “Amanda Show” and “All That” who pleaded no contest in 2004 to several charges involving children and child pornography.

“I mean, if I was a reporter, I would be frothing at the mouth for that story, to illuminate it and put it everywhere. But there were years that I would go and Google and be like, I wonder who’s written about this story. And it’s just nowhere. There was nothing on Brian. I was so perplexed by that.”

He ultimately felt that by participating in the docuseries, Bell could be part of the solution.

“I’m in the thick of it, and in the fire right now, because having this sensitive of a story and something that I’ve held inside for so many years…I’m still kind of reeling from the idea of my soul being bared to the world. But I see such good  coming out of people. They were approaching me at the airport on the way here, telling me their stories and how they now have the bravery to come out and speak and how they’re going to their legislatures to get things changed. So you’re seeing a change.”

His having been a victim hasn’t completely soured Bell on his own acting past, He said he still loves to look back and watch old episodes of “The Amanda Show” and “Drake & Josh” and doesn’t cringe in horror. He asserts, “I think Hollywood’s a beautiful place, full of fantasy and imagination and fun. But it’s also a completely dark cesspool of just disgusting waste.” But he’s greatly encouraged by the overwhelming reaction to the series. “This is the response that I feel should have happened so many years ago,” he believes. “We have to tell the world about this, and this needs to change.”

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