Drake Bell is attempting to set the record straight regarding the involvement of "Boy Meets World" actors Rider Strong and Will Friedle in supporting Brian Peck, Bell's former dialogue and acting coach who sexually assaulted him as a minor. The former Nickelodeon star revealed the abuse in Investigation Discovery's new docuseries, "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV," and has since engaged in open discourse on social media.
Strong and Friedle were among a sizeable group of individuals who wrote letters of support for Peck in 2003 after Bell accused him. In a February episode of their podcast with fellow "Boy Meets World" alum, Danielle Fishel, Strong and Friedle reportedly preemptively addressed their connection to Peck after once they learned that their letters would be aired to the public.
In a series of since-deleted comments on an Instagram post by "Zoey 101" actor Alexa Nikolas, in which she singled out Strong and Friedle and their podcast, Bell spoke out about his understanding of the "Boy Meets World" stars' involvement.
“Rider was 24 years old when he wrote the letter and was told by Brian what he did,” Bell wrote. "He wrote the letter anyway." Later, Bell stated that Friedle was 27 years old at the time and that Peck "told him what he did,” adding that “Many people turned away and said no I won’t write a letter, but [Strong and Friedle] did.” Bell continued, alleging that Friedle wasn't manipulated into writing the letter.
“Everyone thought the letters would be sealed forever and no one would ever see them," Bell said. "This is their publicist telling them how to get ahead of the story.”
In the episode of "Pod Meets World" last month, Strong noted how he spent a significant amount of time with Peck, asserting, "The person he presented was this great, funny guy who was really good at his job, and you wanted to hang out with. I saw him every day, hung out with him every day, talked to him every day." When Peck notified Friedle of his arrest in August 2003, he couched in such a way “where it wasn’t his fault” and that “it was clearly the fault of his victim."
"My initial instinct because of the years I've been with him was like 'Well, yeah, of course, it can't be you. Can't be. Right, you're innocent. It can't possibly be that,'" Friedle continued. "So you sidle up to the guy who now you look back on as an adult and you go, 'He's horrible.' And my instinct initially was, 'Well, my friend can't be [this person], this can't be. So it's got to be the other person's fault,' has to be the story.
"Of course, it makes complete sense," Friedle went on. "The way that he's saying it, and 'You're damn right, it's that kid's fault. How dare he?' And I look back at that now as an adult, and it makes me want to cry that I ever was that naive."
Strong observed that while Peck “didn’t say nothing had happened," he instead implied that he was merely "a victim of jailbait."
“Back then, you couldn't Google to find out what people were being charged with," Strong said, noting how it seemed as though Peck 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 ultimately concluded that he and Strong were “sitting in that courtroom on the wrong side of everything.”
"The victim's mother turned and said, 'Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And it doesn’t change what you did to my kid,'" he stated. "I just sat there wanting to die. It was like, 'What the hell am I doing here?' It was horrifying all the way around."
"We weren't told the whole story, but it doesn't change the fact that we did it," Friedle added. "I still can't get the words out to describe all of the things that I'm feeling inside of myself."
