Drake Bell praises former costar Amanda Bynes: 'She was like a rocket ship'

Drake Bell has nothing but praise for Amanda Bynes.

The Drake & Josh star, who worked with Bynes on Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show, discussed his relationship with the She’s the Man actress in an appearance on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast. “I can only speak to my experience while I was working with Amanda and that was that she was, like you said, just an incredible talent,” Bell said. “She was so funny, she was so, she was like a rocket ship. She got on set and she was just, the talent that just oozed from her effortlessly was awe-inspiring.”

Bell went on to explain that he’d been an admirer of Bynes’ work before he got into show business himself. “She was a big star to me because I’d grown up watching All That, and so for me when I booked The Amanda Show, I just couldn’t believe it, and that I got to work with her,” he said. “I was already such a big fan.”

Bell also said that he hasn’t talked to Bynes in a long time. “I can’t speak to anything in her personal life.”

Bynes and Bell were two of the primary subjects of the new Investigation Documentary series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which examines the alleged abuse child stars faced on TV sets headed by producer Dan Schneider. In the documentary, former Nickelodeon employees called Schneider’s relationship with Bynes into question. “I definitely saw Amanda being very close physically with Dan,” editor Karyn Finley Thompson said in the doc, alleging, “There were many times that I saw Amanda sitting behind him hugging him, or like giving him a neck massage or whatever. Dan and Amanda had a close relationship, and I didn’t think anything different than that.”

Bell, however, said that he never witnessed anything unusual between Bynes and the producer, who also worked together on What I Like About You and Big Fat Liar. “This was in the throes of a lot that I was dealing with personally, but no, I mean, I just saw a really talented, amazing actress, and no, I never saw anything.”

In Schneider's video response to Quiet on Set, he shared that Bynes once called him for assistance while she was attempting to legally emancipate herself from her parents. “It was very late. Well, after midnight, or one or two in the morning, the phone rang,” Schneider said in the video. “I answered it and it was Amanda. She was in distress. She had had some conflict with her parents, I think her father, and she called. I was immediately concerned for her safety.”

Schneider said he arranged for someone to pick Bynes up and find her a safe place to stay. “I felt better. She ended up being taken to the police.”

Listen to the full Not Skinny but Not Fat episode above.

A new episode of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV premieres on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ID. The first four episodes of the docuseries are streaming on Max.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• Drake Bell further details past abuse allegations against him: I 'was incredibly irresponsible'
• Pedophiles on set, sexism in the writers' room: Everything said about Nickelodeon on Quiet on Set
• Kenan Thompson hasn't talked to All That costar Amanda Bynes in years: 'I'm just rooting for her from afar'