‘Quiet on Set’ controversy: Why some participants are slamming the doc

In the Investigation Discovery documentary series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” viewers take a deep dive behind the scenes into the working conditions of the Nickelodeon juggernaut hits of the 1990s and 2000s.

The docuseries — which originally aired four episodes on March 17 to 18 and then a follow-up bonus episode on April 7 — explores how producer Dan Schneider allegedly shaped the children’s network by creating a toxic atmosphere on set. Former “Drake and Josh” star Drake Bell also said he was sexually abused by an acting coach who had been employed by the network. The coach, Brian Peck, pleaded no contest to two charges — lewd act upon a child 14 or 15 by a person 10 years older and oral copulation of a person under 16 — in 2004.

Now, in a new video shared to TikTok, one of the former child actors who participated in the docuseries is critiquing it.

Former “Amanda Show” actor Raquel Lee Bolleau appeared in two of the first four episodes of the docuseries, sharing her experiences on the show. Lee Bolleau said, at 12, she was “over the moon” to be part of the show, but had a comedown on set.

“You wanted Dan to like you because if he didn’t, he was mean to you,” she said. At one point, she said he questioned why she was eating her own birthday cake.

Ahead of the documentary’s release, Lee Bolleau posted a TikTok saying she was “terrified.”

“I have no clue of what I’m about to see. To know that these stories have come out … I’m very nervous. I have no clue of what to expect. I have no clue of who is involved in the documentary.I was asked to share my experience and that’s what I did. I guess I didn’t know what I was walking myself into. To go back into that period of time in my life and relive a very painful, painful period,I don’t know if I’m ready for this. But i know no matter what, this is what I need to do,” she said.

The series made waves to the point that Investigation Discovery ordered a bonus episode, which was released on April 7. In it, Soledad O’Brien speaks to people involved with the previous episodes, like Bell.

Lee Bolleau, in a strongly worded TikTok video posted on April 10, explored her mixed feelings about the bonus episode and what followed.

She said she was not asked to participate in the bonus episode and was also left out of a “huge discussion” on April 9 with the “Quiet on Set” team.

“Everybody was going to, I guess come together to talk about the documentary. Do you think they invited me? Do you think that they even thought about inviting me to this type of discussion?” she said, visibly upset. “Let me tell you what my problem is with this industry. ‘Quiet on Set,’ did the same thing that the industry always does: They get what they want from you. And then they’re done.”

TODAY.com has reached out to representatives for ID, the documentary series directors Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz, Maxine Productions, Sony Pictures Television Nonfiction and Business Insider for comment. The documentary series is based on reporting from Business Insider.

Lee Bolleau’s April 11 comments centered on a never-before-seen clip from her original interview that was included in the bonus documentary episode.

“Then you call me the day that the fifth episode is about to come out and you say, ‘Hey, by the way, just to let you know, you’re also in the fifth episode,’ but you forgot to say ‘Oh, and we’re also going to be having a panel discussion, talk about where you are today and how we can move forward,’” she said. “(You) want me to share my story, but you don’t want to involve me in the actual narrative of change? No, I can’t do it anymore. I’ve given it all I can.”

The clip was shown in the bonus episode to former “All That” cast member Bryan Hearne and his mom, Tracy Brown, who also participated in the documentary. In the clip, Lee Bolleau alleges that Amanda Bynes repeatedly spat in her as part of a sketch titled “The Literals.” The experience left her “infuriated” as a child, she said.

“Every time I said, ‘Spit it out,’ (Bynes) would spit what was in her mouth — whether it was the water or whatever — like, directly in my face,” she said, adding that she did “not find it funny.”

“The third time, I was, like, infuriated,” she recalled. “I was so mad that the director hurried and put me to the side of the set and was like, ‘Listen, Raquel, breathe in, breathe out. She’s the star of the show, don’t make too much of a problem. I’m gonna ask her not to spit in your face. But you have to keep your cool.’”

A spokesperson for Bynes declined to comment to NBC News on Thursday.

Hearne and his mom Brown — who appeared as part of a panel in the bonus episode discussing racism and representation on set — were outraged by Lee Bolleau’s story.

“That’s racist,” Brown said. “Period.”

Hearne, who is Black, shared an on-set experience that brought him to tears. He said he was being fitted for a costume for “Lil Fetus,” a sketch character meant to be the world’s youngest rapper.

“Someone said the skin tone should be charcoal. I started to get teary-eyed. That was a moment when I felt, ‘I could go get my mom about this.’ But also, I know my mom and I know she would’ve rose hell,” Hearne said.

Hearne added that he hadn’t previously heard Lee Bolleau’s story about “The Literals” and only met with and spoken to Lee Bolleau once before.

“But oh my God, that hit me really hard,” he said, emotional. “To just be told you don’t matter in that moment, you’re being spit on, and they say this person matters more than you, take it.”

Lee Bolleau previously appeared in the first and fourth episodes of the series. She did not make any accusations of racism, though her mother, Pam Penn, told interviewers that her young daughter had told her she felt like Schneider favored Bell and Bynes over her.

“Of course as a parent, you want to speak up but I just didn’t want Raquel (Lee Bolleau) to face any backlash for any behaviors that I had done,” Penn said.

Most of Lee Bolleau’s comments that aired in the initial episodes focused on the on-set vibe created by Schneider.

“Dan yelled a lot. Dan was like a tornado, he’d come in and you’d be like, ‘Wow, OK, Dan showed up,’” she said in one clip. “The set would not feel the same when he would leave. I think because everybody was on their toes, scared.”

Lee Bolleau also previously opened up about how being let go from “The Amanda Show” after one season “really broke my confidence.”

“That was a very young lesson to learn in my career is that everyone is replaceable and it sent me down a really dark path,” she said. “I had to really pick myself back up and keep it moving in an industry that showed me very early on that it has no love for me at all.”

In her reaction video posted on April 10, Lee Bolleau said her experience as a child actor had been a “very difficult thing … to face.”

“Over and over again, this industry has done nothing but hurt me, left and right from since I was a child,” she said. “It is what it is. And I’m tired. I’m tired of the people in this industry.

“I don’t care for an audition. I don’t care to be on nobody’s set. I don’t care for nobody to recognize me for the work that I’ve done.”

Lee Bolleau did not address Bynes directly in her follow-up video but in Episode Four of the original docuseries, she seemed empathetic and understanding of child stars who struggled in adulthood.

“When I think about Amanda (Bynes), it’s, like, so painful,” she said, referring to Bynes’ public health and legal struggles. “Because we are talking about a very talented young woman. Someone who had the entire world at her fingertips.”

In her response video, Lee Bolleau also alleged that the documentarians never told her “what type of documentary” she was agreeing to be in. She is also not the only participant who has criticized the “Quiet on Set” team after the series aired.

Like Lee Bolleau, who said she didn’t know the nature of the documentary while she was being interviewed, former Nickelodeon game show host Marc Summers has also said he was “ambushed” in his interview for the show.

“They asked me what I thought of Nick, and the first 10 to 12 seconds, from what I understand, in this documentary is me saying all these wonderful things. But they did a bait and switch on me,” Summers said on the Elvis Duran Show on April 5.

“They ambushed me. They never told me what this documentary was really about. And so they showed me a video of something that I couldn’t believe was on Nickelodeon. And I said, ‘Well, let’s stop the tape right here. What are we doing?’”

TODAY.com has reached out to Summers for comment.

Robertson and Schwartz, the directors of the series, previously responded to Summers’ comments in a joint statement to NBC News provided by Investigation Discovery.

“We are clear with each participant about the nature of our projects,” they said at the time.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com