Drake Bell Reveals Whether He’s Heard From Actors Who Wrote Letters Supporting Brian Peck, Defends Mom From Online Backlash

variety.com:

Emily Longeretta Drake Bell is continuing to tell his story in the latest episode of ID’s “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” documentary.

Titled “Breaking the Silence,” the fifth episode, which aired on Sunday, April 7, began with Bell speaking to host Soledad O’Brien about what has happened since he came forward for the first time about being sexually assaulted by Brian Peck.

O’Brien specifically asked Bell, who spoke virtually from Mexico City, about Will Friedle and Rider Strong, two of the actors who wrote character letters for Peck in the 2003 case.

The duo spoke about the decision to do so on their podcast, but hearing their comments didn’t change how Bell felt about that day in court, he said. “I worked with Will on ‘Spider-Man’ and there 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, especially in a work environment,” Bell said on Sunday’s episode. “That’s the thing that’s hard about this — everyone deals with their trauma in different ways, everybody comes to different conclusions at different times in their lives and realizations.” Ahead of the doc’s release, Friedle and Strong revealed their experience with Peck on “Pod Meets World,” with them admitting they were groomed and manipulated and in turn, were on “the wrong side of everything” and felt awful.