Former child star Drake Bell has hit out at the contract terms from his work with Nickelodeon, that he says have left him struggling to pay rent.
The actor, now 39, explained that despite the ongoing success of his show Drake & Josh, he is not living anything close to a life of luxury.
Having also starred in Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show, Drake revealed that he was given one-off payments for his work and does not receive residuals.
Bell was sentenced to one-year probation in 2021 after he admitted sexting a 15-year-old girl who he had met through her aunt at the age of 12.
He told The Unplanned Podcast: ‘That’s the perception of the world, it’s always been this way.
‘It’s like, you know, “Oh, you made a Folgers Coffee commercial. You must live in a mansion in Hollywood. Like, I saw you on TV. You’re rich.”
‘That’s far from the case. And especially, which is the bummer for most of us on Nickelodeon, we don’t get residuals for our shows.’
Drake Bell, now 39, claims that despite the ongoing success of Drake & Josh, he is not living anything close to a life of luxury
The star is still recognisable to many after starring in the Drake & Josh show with Josh Peck from 2004 to 2007
Drake said that had he been given a fair contract, he would still be benefiting from his work.
This is because residual checks – achieved through the sale of reruns – would allow him to still get paid for appearing in reruns of the hit shows, which he still features in.
The star is still recognisable to many after starring in the Drake & Josh show with Josh Peck from 2004 to 2007.
He said: ‘The Friends cast at the peak was making a million dollars an episode. You make 13 episodes that year, you make $13,000,000. You make 20 episodes that year, you make $20,000,000, right?
‘But right now, each cast member of Friends just in syndication alone is making over $20,000,000 a year, and they’re not filming a show every week.
‘They’re not going to work, but they’re playing their show and they’re using their likeness and they’re doing all this, so they get paid for it.
‘And they’re making over $20,000,000 in a year just because other networks are buying the rights for syndication.’
The former child star, who also claims to have been sexually abused on-set, described his current financial situation as the result of the actions of ‘evil people’.
he former child star, who also claims to have been sexually abused on-set, described his current financial situation as the result of the actions of ‘evil people’
Drake, who is also known for The Amanda Show and The Fairly OddParents, said: ‘It’s a lot of evil, corrupt people. That’s the only thing, that is the answer. There’s no other answer.’
‘Do everything that they do to us mentally and emotionally, and then throw us to the wolves. And we’re like, okay, cool. I got rent this month. There are three channels doing marathons.
‘Netflix just bought it, it’s top 10 on Netflix, and I gotta figure out how to pay my rent this month
‘And some fat cat with a cigar is just sitting up at the top of Viacom just going [chuckles]. What do you call it? It’s just like getting high on child labor.
‘People don’t understand how the business works, the business side of this. They just see what the perception is on Instagram and social media and all the glitz and the glamour of Hollywood.
‘We’re putting in all of this work. This corporation is making billions with a ‘B’ off of us, and we’re being compensated for the week of work, cool, but that’s it.
‘And forever, in perpetuity, it literally says in the contract, across universes and galaxies and planets.’
