Drake Bell is urging the public to offer celebrities the opportunity for “redemption” for their past mistakes.
At 39, Bell has faced his own set of personal struggles since rising to fame as a child on Nickelodeon. After a challenging journey, he found sobriety through rehab in 2023. The actor believes that public figures deserve the same chance for “reinvention” as anyone else.
Speaking on the Tea Time with Raven and Miranda spin-off Miranda Moments, he said: “With the way that the public…think about people in your life. There’s always a bad apple in your family, it’s like ‘God, if Jimmy could just get his act together…’
“How many people in your life have redeemed themselves for something? Or you have an alcoholic brother who hasn’t drank for 18 years and has a great family, but 18 years ago, dude, you didn’t even want him in the family.
“If everyone in the public would think about that person in their family and then apply that to the celebrity.
“Do you really want your brother when he was 22 and did that really stupid thing? But now he’s 35 and you want that 22 thing…that’s what defines him? I’m not talking about murder or rape or that you should be put away and strung up for, but there’s gotta be room for redemption, reinvention, and rehabilitation because otherwise we’re all doomed. Everyone’s doomed.”
The former star of Drake and Josh also mentioned that acting can be more physically demanding than many people realize, but he doesn’t want to seem “annoying” by making this point.
He said: “It’s so funny, you could have a wide shot, the scene is it’s pouring rain, it’s a period piece, the house is here, the horse and buggy are here, the family is loading up the horse and buggy in the rain.
“You watch that as a spectator and you’re like ‘Oh, okay…’ Well, it’s freezing, the entire surroundings are ice and snow, they’ve cleared out this certain area to make it look like the summertime.
“They’re pouring rain, you’re in these clothes from the 1800s, and you’re having to carry bales of hay and straw, and bags of rice, and run in the mud. You’re actually doing this physical labour while everyone [else] is in tents with Parkas, hot cocoa, heaters, and monitors going ‘Does it look real enough to you?’
“But I feel like sometimes I complain about that, it’s so annoying. It’s like [mock-crying voice] acting is so hard.
“Sometimes I have to pretend to be cold when it’s hot, and sometimes, I have to pretend to be hot when it’s cold!”
