When former child star Drake Bell went public that a talk coach had sexually abused him when he was younger, he understood that speaking out wouldn't just affect himself.
“What's the story they're going to tell him?” Bell said in a recent interview, referring to her 3-year-old son. “Will someone else tell you my story or will I be there to tell and share my story?”
Bell, who starred in “Drake & Josh” and Nickelodeon's “The Amanda Show,” told “Today” that his young son inspired him to appear in the docuseries “Quiet on Set,” in which he named dialogue coach Brian Peck as her abuser. “The decisions I make in my life, looking toward the future, are no longer for me,” he said in the interview published Monday. A representative for Peck did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment.
In “Quiet on Set,” which premiered in March, Bell recalls the ongoing abuse she suffered under Peck. Bell tells producers that the dialogue coach became friends with him and gradually “worked his way into every aspect of my life.”
Peck (who is not related to Bell's “Drake & Josh” co-star Josh Peck) was convicted of child sexual abuse in 2004, but his victim's name was not revealed at the time. Bell acknowledged in the series that he was the “John Doe” referenced in the case. Brian Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender.
Bell came forward 20 years after Peck's conviction and after having contemplated sharing his story while in rehab in 2023.
“I could have let this destroy me or make me stronger for him,” Bell says, referring again to his son, whom he shares with wife Janet Von Schmeling.
After her appearance on “Quiet on Set,” Bell received a lot of support from former Nickelodeon stars, including Josh Peck, on-screen mom Nancy Sullivan and “Zoey 101” actress Alexa Nikolas. Former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider, whose alleged inappropriate behavior with young actors takes center stage in the docuseries, recalled in a March YouTube video the support he said he gave Bell and her mother at the time of Bell's sentencing. Pecks.
“That was probably the darkest part of my career,” Schneider said.
Bell, in both “Quiet on Set” and her “Today” interview, avoided sharing specific details of the abuse she suffered at the hands of Peck. “It's too graphic,” she told “Today.”
Monday's interview also touched on Bell's previous legal troubles, including convictions for DUI and child endangerment. Bell also spoke about her substance abuse, rehabilitation and how a disappearance in Florida in 2023 was part of his efforts to make her loved ones understand his trauma.
When asked if she would allow her son to pursue a television career, Bell said, “It's very hard to say 'no' right away.” His own career as an actor, Bell said, was accompanied by “indescribable things” and “amazing experiences.”
Promoting the “way entertainment affects lives and how we are moved by the stores we tell,” Bell said, “is a fine line.”
