‘Quiet on Set’: Drake Bell Doesn’t Accept Will Friedle’s Excuse for Supporting Brian Peck

Drake Bell returned to share more of his harrowing truth in Sunday night’s new bonus episode of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, titled Breaking the Silence. In it, the former child star reacted to the success of the ID docuseries, which has reached an audience of millions and rocked the entertainment world with its shocking revelations of abuse, assault, and racism on the sets of some of Nickelodeon’s biggest hits.

He also had an opportunity to discuss some of the resulting comments that have flowed in regarding his deeply upsetting account of being sexually assaulted by his former acting coach, Brian Peck — particularly by those who publicly supported the ultimately convicted child molester during his trial.

In the new interview with journalist and host Soledad O’Brien, Bell was presented with audio comments made by Boy Meets World star Will Friedle, who was one of several child stars seated on Peck’s side of the courtroom during his trial.

Bell had previously expressed his anguish over seeing the courtroom packed with support for Schneider in Quiet on Set, saying, “His entire side of the courtroom was full. There were definitely some recognizable faces on that side of the room. And my side was me, my mom, and my brother. Brian had been convicted, getting all this support from a lot of people in the industry. And I was pretty shocked.”

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In the clip presented to Bell by O’Brien on Breaking the Silence, Friedle said, “[Peck] asked us to support him and go to court with him, which a lot of us did, and we’re sitting in that courtroom, on the wrong side of everything — of course, had no idea of this, filled with child actors to the point where the victim’s mother turned and said, ‘Look at all the famous people you brought with you, and it doesn’t change what you did to my kid.’ And I just sat there wanting to die. It was like, what the hell am I doing here?”

When asked whether Bell’s opinion of Friedle’s former support of Peck was changed by those comments, he said, simply, “No.”

“I worked with Will on [Disney’s Ultimate] Spider-Man, and there was a lot of opportunity to apologize or talk about it, and he never did,” Bell continued. The actor-singer went on to concede that “it’s a very difficult subject to bring up, especially in a work environment.” However, he is still unmoved by the comments for a very specific reason: “That day is so engrained in my mind, and there’s so many people who… nobody’s reached out to me… Not one person that’s written one of those letters has reached out to me.”

Elsewhere in Bell’s new interview, he talked about the backlash his former Drake & Josh costar Josh Peck faced for initially not responding publicly to Bell’s on-air claims with support for the actor. Though Peck later issued a public statement on the matter, confirming he’d reached out to Bell privately, some fans were bothered by his lack of immediate open response.

Of that, Bell said in Breaking the Silence, “I know what it’s like to have the internet attack you for, I mean, really nothing. He had reached out to me, and we’ve been talking. This is a really difficult thing to process. But at the end of the day, we have such a close connection and this unique bond that’s so rare in this industry that, I don’t know, it’s really special, and he’s a really great person.”

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Streaming, Max