From left: Giovonnie Samuels, Bryan Hearne and Soledad O’Brien in “Quiet on Set: Breaking the Silence”.Photo:warner bros./Discovery
warner bros./Discovery
In the April 7 episode, titled “Breaking the Silence,” journalistSoledad O’BrieninterviewedDrake & JoshstarDrake Bell,All ThatalumsBryan HearneandGiovonnie Samuels, and other special guests about the series and their experiences at Nickelodeon.
Hearne and Samuels were also featured in the show and described their experiences working as some of Nickelodeon’s few young Black actors in the early 2000s.
FromAll Thatalum Shane Lyons alleging Peck made “passes” at him while he was a child actor at Nickelodeon to Samuels and Hearne saying that they found Schneider’sapology videounconvincing, here are the six most shocking revelations from the fifth episode of the docuseries.
Drake Bell says nobody has personally apologized about Brian Peck support letters
Courtesy Investigation Discovery
The letters of support from Friedle, Strong, and other actors were publicly revealed for the first time in an earlier episode of the docuseries. Peck was alongtime friend of the actors; the actorsspoke about their regret over the lettersin a February episode of their podcastPod Meets World,prior to docuseries’ release on March 17.
But for Bell, the remorse of the actors doesn’t change how he remembers that day in court.
“I worked with Will [Friedle] onSpider-Man[the Disney XD series] and it was a lot of opportunity to apologize or talk about it, and [he] never did, but also it’s a very difficult subject to bring up,” Bell tells journalist Soledad O’Brien through video chat. “Especially in a work environment.”
Brian Peck.Albert L. Ortega/Getty
Albert L. Ortega/Getty
Bell adds, “And that’s the thing that’s hard about this, is because everybody deals with their trauma in different ways, everybody comes to different conclusions at different times in their lives and realizations. I mean, I really appreciate their perspective now but that day is so ingrained in my mind and there’s so many people who … nobody’s reached out to me. Not one person who has written those letters has reached out to me.”
Will Friedle (left) and Rider Strong.Tommaso Boddi/Getty
Tommaso Boddi/Getty
Strong, who starred as Shawn Hunter, expressed similar regret. He said Peck “didn’t say nothing had happened" but rather suggested he was “a victim of jailbait.”
“Back then, you couldn’t Google to find out what people were being charged with," Strong said, before speculating that “he was making a plea deal and admitting one thing — which is all he admitted to us — but it looks like he was being charged with a series of crimes, which we did not know.”
Friedle later added, “We weren’t told the whole story, but it doesn’t change the fact that we did it. I still can’t get the words out to describe all of the things that I’m feeling inside of myself."
In apost shared to X(formerly Twitter) on April 5, Bell expressed forgiveness toward Strong.
“I just had the most amazing conversation with@RiderStrongwe are all healing together. I have nothing but love and forgiveness for him,” the post read.
Bell defends his mother, says Peck “pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes”
Joe Bell; Drake Bell; Robin Dodson.Alamy; Paul Archuleta/Getty Images (2)
Alamy; Paul Archuleta/Getty Images (2)
In episode three of the docuseries, when Bell for the first time publicly reveals the sexual abuse he endured at the hands of Peck, he talks about how Peck stepped into his life in a prominent role after causing a rift between Bell and his father, Joe Bell. (Joe had raised suspicions about Peck’s behavior around Bell and asked Bell’s mother to never leave their son alone with Peck.)
Peck would later accompany Bell to acting auditions in Los Angeles, which were at least an hour away from where Bell lived with his mother, Robin Dodson. Due to the distance, Bell would frequently spend the night at Peck’s house. One night when he was 15, Bell said he woke up to Peck sexually assaulting him.
Later in the docuseries, Bell says he and his father had rebuilt their relationship and were now on good terms. But viewers were unaware of where his relationship currently stood with his mother.
Since the docuseries’ release, Bell says people have been critical of his mother and accused her of not protecting her son. But he defended her in “Breaking the Silence.”
“My mom and I have an incredible relationship,” he tells O’Brien. “I do feel there’s a lot of people kind of, after the doc, going after my mom a bit. But if you were in that situation at that time, he was so good at what he was doing, Brian, he was so calculated, he knew exactly what to say, how to say it, what to do, the image to portray, everything. I completely understand how he just pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. It’s tragic.”
‘All That’ alums Giovonnie Samuels and Bryan Hearne Say Dan Schneider’s apology was insincere
From left: Giovonnie Samuels, Bryan Hearne and Soledad O’Brien in “Quiet on Set: Breaking the Silence”.warner bros./Discovery
In this fifth episode,All Thatalums Samuels and Hearne make a reappearance. The former child actors spoke candidly in the earlier episodes about their experiences working with creatorDan Schneideras the only two Black actors on the Nickelodeon series during their tenure in the early 2000s.
Since the docuseries’ release, Schneider, who left the networkin 2018after an internal investigation into his allegedly verbally abusive and demanding behavior on set,defended himselfand apologized for his actions in a 20-minuteYouTube videoreleased on March 19.
However, Samuels and Hearne, who were visibly laughing, as O’Brien pointed out, after a clip of the video played, found the apology unconvincing.
“The thing about his apology as a whole, is, I thought it was funny,” Hearne tells O’Brien, who asks, “What did you think was funny about it?”
Hearne responds, “If I could be candid, Dan was an actor before all of this. And so, I think that he brushed off some chops, and gave us a nice performance. Where was all of this apologizing whenJennette McCurdy’s [aniCarlyalum] book came out?”
Dan Schneider in the video posted to YouTube on March 19, 2024.DanWarp/Youtube
DanWarp/Youtube
“Or whenAngelique Bates[anAll Thatalum] had said something,” Samuels chimes in. “Yeah, very publicly,” Hearne says, questioning why Schneider would apologize “without accountability.”
Samuels, who is also featured in the docuseries,told PEOPLEin March that while working onAll Thatas a teenager,she was the sole Black actress not given a hairstylist and was being trained to avoid choking during a sketch that required drinking enormous amounts of fake coffee and sugar. She said it felt like “waterboarding.”
Bryan Hearne (left) and Giovonnie Samuels.Gregg DeGuire/WireImage; Amy Graves/WireImage
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage; Amy Graves/WireImage
“When you have a writer or showrunner and he’s laughing the hardest, you go along with it,” Samuels says in the fifth episode. “Because one, you don’t know any better, and two, this is your job, this is your boss.”
In the video, Schneider addressed the allegations that he would treat Black child actors differently than others on set.
“Diversity has always been very important to my shows,” Schneider explained to BooG!e, who played T-Bo oniCarly. “If you go back to the very first show, I haven’t made that very evident as it is in the second one, and in the very first movie I made after that. I’m very proud of that.”
But Schneider’s words didn’t sit well with Samuels and Hearne.
“It was very evident from the first day that it was just the two of us,” Samuels says, referring to the fact that she and Hearne were the only two Black child actors on the show at the time. “That’s usually the first thing you do in a Black space or as a Black person or a person of color, you count who’s in the room in front and behind the camera. And there were two.”
Samuels says Schneider asked for “quote of support” before release of ‘Quiet on Set’
Giovonnie Samuels (second from left) with the cast of “All That”.Globe Photos/Alamy Stock Photo
Globe Photos/Alamy Stock Photo
Samuels also reveals in the fifth episode that Schneider called her a week before the docuseries aired, asking for “a quote of support” but she declined.
“He asked because I came back [to work with Schneider at the network] to doHenry Danger, which was some time later,” Samuels shares, adding that Schneider also knew she was featured inQuiet on Set. “He’s like, ‘You had a good time on set, right? Right?’”
Dan Schneider.Eric Vitale/Getty
Eric Vitale/Getty
In a previous statement to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for Schneider said, “Nothing has been alleged about Dan other than him being a tough boss who got into disagreements with other adult executives at Nickelodeon and when Dan departed Nickelodeon a full investigation was done and again, that’s all that they found.”
Bryan Hearne’s mom says ‘Quiet on Set’ helped repair relationship with son
Tracey Brown (left) and Bryan Hearne in “Quiet on Set: Breaking the Silence”.warner bros./Discovery
As shown in the docuseries, Hearne recalls when he was not asked to return as a cast member onAll Thatafter two seasons, a moment he says had an impact on the relationship with his mother, Tracey Brown.
“The day that we were told…in that moment, he grew up, and his body language showed it,” Brown said in an earlier episode. “[It] just showed this man protruding out, and that’s a man that didn’t trust his mom anymore. It ruined us.”
“I wasn’t looking for my son to be this great star, and that’s my dependency,” she tells O’Brien. “My dependency is raising a healthy child.” She also says she “knew” she was responsible for the fact that her son lost his job on the show.
“It was like, well, whose fault is it? Is it my fault? You know, she’s the outspoken one,” Hearne adds, referring to his mother. “And there were times where I was like I’m not going to say anything because I don’t want her to burn the place down.”
Brown says her relationship with her son was strained from that moment forward, but filming this docuseries brought them back together. (They were interviewed separately in the earlier episodes.)
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Asked what advice they would give to a young Black actor today, Brown says, “Do it. But if you have to walk away, do that.”
‘All That’ alum Shane Lyons claims Brian Peck made ‘passes’ at him while working at Nickelodeon
From left: Bryan Hearne, Giovonnie Samuels, Shane Lyons and Soledad O’Brien in “Quiet on Set: Breaking the Silence”.warner bros./Discovery
In this fifth episode,All ThatalumShane Lyonsspeaks out for the first time about his experience on the sketch-comedy show, recalling an inappropriate conversation he had with Brian Peck.
“There were certainly some passes,” Lyons says, referring to Peck. “When he asked me what I thought ‘blue balls’ was, I thought they were racket balls.”
“Some conversation was happening in the green room, and we get called to set, and Brian follows behind me,” Lyons recalls. “I’m kind of alone in the green room set, and he sits next to me and goes, ‘Well we know what blue balls are right, Shane?’ Because previously in the conversation they were talking about ‘blue balls.’ I said, ‘Yeah, like racket balls.”
“I’m a kid, 13 [or] 14,” Lyons continues. “As I think back now, as an adult, as a 36-year-old, ‘Would I ever have a conversation with a 13-year-old boy like he had with me?’ No. It makes absolutely zero sense.”
Lyons also praised Bell for speaking out publicly about the sexual abuse he endured at the hands of Peck.
“I think it was very brave of him to go on national television and say [it], and the specificity of what Brian did, was something nobody knew. And it’s absolutely gut-wrenching,” he says, adding that he feels “very lucky and blessed that nothing like that happened to him.”
source: people.com
