Several Quiet On Set subjects speak out against "retraumatizing" doc
Former Nickelodeon stars Raquel Lee Bolleau and Alexa Nikolas say the documentary was "not at all what [they] signed up for"
Re-airing any sort of exploitative or sexually explicit material—even for the purpose of exposing a predatory system—is a slippery slope, and it’s one Quiet On Set subjects Raquel Lee Bolleau and Alexa Nikolas say the documentary’s producers didn’t handle well. “After watching the show, I saw that it was not at all what I signed up for,” Lee Bolleau, who had recounted her traumatic time on The Amanda Show and subsequent passion for protecting other young performers for the documentary, told IndieWire. “I also saw that I was surrounded by people who have one agenda, and that one agenda is their own success. It’s a horrible word to even use in this context: success.”
When it released its first four episodes last month, Quiet On Set instigated a massive wave of conversation about the abhorrent behavior of former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider and the ethics of child stardom in general. But Lee Bolleau and Nikolas (who appeared on Zoey 101 before pivoting to full-time activism), accuse the series’ co-creators, Emma Schwartz and Mary Robertson, of using their stories as an excuse to re-air inappropriate material from the shows they starred in as kids, effectively exploiting them all over again.
“They made me feel like my story was going to be heard and it wasn’t,” Nikolas said. “They were more interested in resurfacing that awful footage than listening to survivors’ experiences.” (For what it’s worth, Nikolas and her organization, Eat Predators, have also been accused of mishandling survivors’ stories.)
In hindsight of the series’ premiere, Lee Bolleau and Nikolas have also come to see the documentary’s two-year production window as an intentional “siloing” of its subjects that kept them in the dark about the documentary’s overall structure and “manufactured consent” that made it harder to critique the project. “They pieced together a story and a narrative that they had on their own,” Lee Bolleau said. “The reason they kept us all apart and from knowing specifics was because they knew if we all got together, we would start sharing and exchanging experiences and figuring out what this really is and what it means for us.”
Lee Bolleau also alleged to IndieWire that the producers “kept trying to push Brian Peck [and other criminal allegations] on me” in her interview, even though she personally had no experience with him and only wanted to speak to her own story. “I dare them to air my entire interview now,” she continued. “There is a part in my interview where I stop Emma in the middle of the interview and I said to her, ‘Hey Emma, what is this about?… You need to help me understand because your questions that you’re asking me right now are not lining up with what we’ve been talking about over the past year.’” (Robertson and Schwartz denied these claims in a statement to IndieWire: “We are clear with each participant about the nature of our projects.”)
Recently, the series also had a large press event and panel in California that neither Lee Bolleau nor Nikolas were invited to. “Quiet on Set did the same thing that the industry always does: They get what they want from you and then they’re done. Never did they think that I would want to be at a discussion like that or a part of a discussion like that. Like, really?” Lee Bolleau said in a TikTok video posted after learning of the event. “I’m telling you, the level of betrayal that I feel from these people—if you want to wash something till there’s nothing left, that is exactly what this has done for me,” she said to IndieWire later. “I’m really, really, really done.”
@raquelleebolleau I really have nothing left for this industry 🎬 it’s all the same… #quietonset #quietonsetthedarksideofkidstv #childactors #raquellee #fypツ