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Josh Peck has spoken out after being criticized for his silence over Drake Bell’s recent sexual abuse revelations.
The two actors co-directed the popular Nickelodeon comedy Noughties, Drake and Joshin which they played stepbrothers who live in the same house.
In the new documentary series Silence on the set: The dark side of children’s televisionBell says she suffered sexual abuse when she was 15 at the hands of actor and speech coach Brian Peck, a claim that “devastated” Dan Schneider, who was the children’s channel’s executive producer at the time.
On Thursday (March 21), four days after the documentary’s release, Peck shared a statement on Instagram.
“Finish the Quiet on set documentary and it took me a few days to process it,” he began his publication. “I reached out to Drake privately, but I wanted to lend my support to the survivors who were brave enough to share their stories of physical and emotional abuse on Nickelodeon sets with the world.”
He continued: “Children must be protected. Reliving this publicly is incredibly difficult, but I hope it can bring healing for the victims and their families, as well as necessary change in our industry.”
The statement comes a day after Bell asked fans to “take it easy” on Peck, who received an avalanche of backlash for remaining silent on the issue.
“I just want to clarify something,” Bell said in a video. “I’ve noticed a lot of comments on some of Josh’s TikToks and some of his posts and I just want you to 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 made public, but I just want you to know that he (Peck) has been in contact with me and has been very sensitive.
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“But he reached out to talk to me and help me get through this and he’s been really great. So he just wanted you guys to know and take it a little easy.”
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 unidentified minor.
A year later, he pleaded no contest to charges of performing a lewd act on a 14- or 15-year-old and oral copulation with a 16-year-old. Brian Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender in October 2004.
Silence on the set: The dark side of children’s televisiona four-part documentary series investigating toxic working conditions in children’s shows in the 1990s and early 2000s, aired March 17-18.
It is available to stream on Max and Discovery+.