The first episode of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV premiered in mid-March. It opened a Pandora's box of the obnoxious abuse of power that has been perpetuated against child actors. Drake Bell was among those featured in the show, who opened up about the sexual abuse he sustained at the hands of his former dialogue coach, Brian Peck, now a registered sex offender. Now, Kenan Thompson has spoken about the shocking allegations on Nickelodeon sets.

Kenan Thompson extends support

Actor and comedian Kenan Thompson recently opened up about his experience on the sets. He also extended his support to those who shared their personal stories in the doc. “It’s a tough subject because, it’s tough for me because I can’t really speak on things that I’ve never witnessed,” Thompson said on daytime talk show Tamron Hall. 

“You know what I’m saying? Because all these things happened after I left, basically, and Dan [Schneider] wasn’t really on Kenan & Kel like that. I mean, he got a ‘created by’ credit, but it was a different showrunner. So our worlds weren’t really overlapping outside of all that, necessarily. And then all that negativity kind of started happening outside of our tenure there,” the actor further added. 

The actor further mentioned that he was not aware of a lot of it. “I mean I think it’s a good thing that the doc is out and it’s putting things on display that need to be, you know, stories that need to be told for this, accountability sake. But it’s definitely tough to watch because I have fond memories of that place and I have fond memories of my co-stars and stuff like that. So to hear that they’ve gone through terrible things like that, it’s just, it’s really tough,” the actor mentioned.

Drake Bell reveals why he finally chose to speak up

During his recent appearance on The Sarah Fraser Show podcast, Drake Bell, now 37, revealed why he had always been hesitant about sharing his story with the world. The actor recalled being borderline accused for choosing to not share his story as one of the reasons for such systems of abuse to continue thriving. 

He said, "Another documentary that came out years ago that requested my involvement, and when I declined, the response I got was unbelievable. They said that I was, people like me were the problem, and this is why things aren’t gonna change in the industry because people like you won’t speak out and won’t come forward."