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Shortly after Drake Bell called he Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide “Ned’s Declassless” cast for apparently joking about sexual assault in viral clip, star Devon Werkheiser posted an apology on Twitter/X. “He was being an idiot today. There is no way around it,” he wrote. I feel horrible that my idiot was talking about this without seeing it. Yo noticed Quiet on set tonight and I am horrified by the severity of what Drake and others shared. Really heartbroken by what my fellow actors went through. I can’t believe they weren’t protected. “I’m sorry I aggravated the pain.”
Werkheiser and her co-stars Lindsay Shaw and Daniel Curtis Lee explained this during a new episode of your podcast posted on Friday, insisting that the clip circulating was somewhat out of context, “a vulgar joke at the wrong time.” The actors said they didn’t understand “the magnitude” of what they were tackling and that they were making personal jokes among themselves, without intending to do so at Bell’s expense. However, they acknowledged that “they screwed up.” “I hate that we have compounded the trauma around this situation that means so much to each of us. “I’m sorry,” Shaw said.
Werkheiser recalled that Bell arrived at Ned declassified pilot’s farewell party: “And I remember him being like a big brother, doing me this cool way, like putting me under his shoulder like, ‘Welcome to the network’ and stuff.” The pilot recording, Werkheiser said, would have been around the same time Bell was in the middle of his abuser’s trial. “When I saw our little TikTok clip and that Drake had retweeted it, I was shocked. fair watching his interview” in Quiet on setWerkheiser shared. “And someone sent me that he retweeted it, and then I saw the clip, and… I felt like a piece of shit,” he said. “I know it seems like I’m laughing at this. And it wasn’t, but I know what it looks like. And for Drake to see it… I felt fucking horrible.” The cast clarified that they were only talking about it because people in the comments of the live stream were asking about it, but “That we were willing to address those questions in a place of such fucking ignorance” was a mistake, Werkheiser admitted.
Someone else involved in the pilot Ned declassified was Bell’s abuser, Brian Peck, the actors revealed. He only worked as a stand-in for that episode, but Werkheiser claimed to remember when it became known that Peck had been arrested and spoke to his mother about how Peck had been on the set. Furthermore, the three stars maintained that his experience with ned and its creator Scott Fellows was largely healthy.
Still: everyone has had experiences of being “screwed by the business in some way” and can remember the pressure of being a child actor to work hard and please the adults on set, whether that meant working overtime or working for sickness. And while they had an advocate on set (Scott Plimpton) with the “integrity” to defend them and shut down production if it didn’t comply with child labor laws, all three stars agree that not all advocates care. sufficient or has sufficient power to intervene in the midst of those situations.
Even when there is are Although laws, protections, and advocates exist, rules are often bent or broken, putting children in situations that are at best uncomfortable and at worst actively dangerous. So what is the solution? “I’ll get to the point, to be honest with you, this is a difficult position. … Children should almost not be allowed to appear on television,” Lee said. “You have to cut it. It has to stop. It is a humanitarian issue.”
He noted that “oddballs” like Peck, or even like Daniel Schneider, who was not accused of any sexual misconduct but was described as a tyrannical and oppressive boss, seem to gravitate toward the entertainment industry. “I no longer know if it is okay for children and young people to work with adults so closely and so frequently. Because it seems like our experience with Scott Fellows was an anomaly. And if this is the norm, the system must be turned off. I hate being that guy to say it.”
Lee became emotional when talking about the Quiet on set where Bell’s father stopped being his manager, allowing Peck to gain more control over Bell’s life. When Werkheiser pointed out that Bell’s father only did it to allow Bell to pursue his dream career as an actor, Lee said, “That’s why I think we have to throw it away. We have to throw it away. … I don’t think it’s right to continue allowing kids to achieve this kind of stardom. Even now that social media exists, at least maybe parents can be there. I know he has his own problems. But he is disgusting, man.”
While Shaw and Werkheiser didn’t necessarily take the same stance on ending child stardom entirely, all three agreed that something had to change. Even beyond working on set, Shaw noted, child actors are expected to receive press training and conduct interviews, a grueling and intensive aspect of the job. “They are not celebrities like an adult is and should not be treated as such,” he said.
For Lee, “The reason I’m taking such a hard line on getting rid of children’s programming is because this is an incident and we’re only now finding out about it. Imagine what else has happened. … All of us who are pursuing this dream need a reset and a paradigm shift. People who are chasing this dream, these sleazy managers and people who say, ‘I can do this for your child.’ ‘Oh, are you working? Let me do this.'”
“Why do we need it in our society?” He asked himself.