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Image Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Nickelodeon
Kenan Thompson opened up about his thoughts on the bombshell documentary Quiet on Set during an appearance on The Tamron Hall Show on Wednesday, March 27. While discussing the findings of the documentary, the Saturday Night Live star, 45, expressed his heartbreak for the victims in the documentary while admitting that he didn’t really work with disgraced producer Dan Schneider during his tenure on Nickelodeon.
When asked about the docu-series, Kenan showed support for the film, even though it addresses “tough subjects,” as he told Tamron Hall. “My heart goes out to anybody that’s been victimized or their families,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing that the doc is out and it’s putting things on display— stories that need to be told for accountability’s sake. But it’s definitely tough to watch because I have fond memories of that place and I have fond memories of my costars and stuff like that. So to hear that they’ve gone through terrible things like that is really tough.”
Earlier in the interview, Kenan explained that he didn’t witness the actions that people in the documentary have accused people of. “It’s tough for me because I can’t really speak on things that I never witnessed, you know what I’m saying? Because all these things happened after I left, basically,” he said.
The Good Burger star continued and said that while he worked with Dan on All That, he didn’t really interact with him as much as some other actors did. “Dan wasn’t really on Kenan & Kel like that,” he said. “I mean, he got a ‘created by’ credit, but it was a different showrunner, so our worlds wasn’t really overly overlapping like that outside of All That, necessarily. And then all of that negativity kinda started happening outside of our tenure there, you know what I mean? So I wasn’t really aware of a lot of it.”
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Tamron mentioned that they had reached out to Dan’s team, as well as the documentary crew. She said that the producer’s team directed them to his response to the documentary on YouTube. She said that the crew had assured that they thoroughly investigated each allegation. “Well, investigate more,” Kenan said. “It’s supposed to be a safe space. It’s supposed to be a safe place for kids, and to hear all about that, it’s like: how dare you.”
Quiet on Set included many disturbing allegations of sexual abuse, racism, and sexism at Nickelodeon. In response to the documentary, the network released a statement. “Though we cannot corroborate or negate allegations of behaviors from productions decades ago, Nickelodeon as a matter of policy investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace environment free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct,” it said. “Our highest priorities are the well-being and best interests not just of our employees, casts and crew, but of all children, and we have adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience.”
Dan also released a statement through his rep, per Variety. “Everything that happened on the shows Dan ran was carefully scrutinized by dozens of involved adults, and approved by the network,” they said. “If there was an actual problem with the scenes that some people, now years later are ‘sexualizing,’ they would be taken down, but they are not, they are aired constantly all over the world today still, enjoyed by both kids and parents. … In addition, every day on every set, there were always parents and caregivers and their friends watching filming and rehearsals. Had there been any scenes or outfits that were inappropriate in any way, they would have been flagged and blocked by this multilayered scrutiny. Unfortunately, some adults project their adult minds onto kids’ shows, drawing false conclusions about them.”
