Drake Bell reveals if he would ever put his son in showbiz after opening up about childhood abuse
Drake Bell finds it "difficult" to think about his son becoming an actor after opening up about being a victim of sexual abuse during his time on Nickelodeon.
Drake Bell finds it "difficult" to think about his son becoming an actor.
The 37-year-old actor was a teen star on Nickelodeon in the early 2000s and recently opened up about how he had been a victim of dialect coach Brian Peck during his time on 'The Amanda Show' when he appeared in the docuseries 'Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV'.
Now, the former 'Drake and Josh' star - who has two-year-old son Wyatt with his ex-wife Janet Von Schmeling - admitted that he would struggle with the idea of doing so because of his own trauma but is also aware that performing has been a natural passion of his for as long as he can remember.
He told Access Hollywood: "That's a that's a difficult question. Because knowing what I know about the industry and having the experience that I've had, it's difficult because it's all I've known. And it's all I've ever wanted to do. I wanted to be an entertainer from as long as as far back as I can remember, I would watch Lucille Ball, the Marx Brothers and Costello, Elvis, The Beatles, and that's what I wanted to do.
"And so it's difficult to say, 'Ah, well, there are some dangers in this' because it's what I experienced is, is not singular to Hollywood. It's in school, it's sports, it's, you know, so you really just have to be careful and be on guard and be very protective, overly protective."
In 2004, Peck pleaded no contest to a charge of oral copulation with a minor under 16 as well as a charge of performing a lewd act with a 14 or 15-year-old. Bell was the plaintiff but his identity as the victim was not made public at the time.
Peck spent 16 months in prison and was mandated to register as a sex offender.
On the flip side, Drake admitted he would never want to take his son's "passion" away from him whatever that may turn out to be.
He said: "But I would hate if my son came up to me and said 'This is what I want to do. I have a passion for it.' And [to] take that away from him. That's...it's hard. You know, a lot of people say, 'Absolutely. I would never let my children do this.' Well, it's like telling your child' No, you can't be a baseball player. You can't do it. Don't even think about it. Because I'm not putting you in baseball.' What if they have a passion for baseball? Yeah, so that's, that's a difficult one.
