A former child actor opens up about her poor experience on The Amanda Show in the latest episode of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.
Raquel Lee Bolleau, who starred in three seasons of the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series, recalls shooting a skit called “The Literals,” in which Amanda Bynes had to do a spit-take with liquid in her mouth.
According to Bolleau, Bynes would repeatedly spit directly in her face while filming the sketch without being prompted to do so.
“Everybody thought it was so funny. Everybody’s laughing, but I did not find it funny,” the actor shares. “The third time, I was infuriated.”
Bolleau continues, “The third time I was infuriated. Like, I was so mad that the director hurried and put me on the side of the set and was like, ‘Listen, Raquel. Breathe in. Breathe out. She’s the star of the show.”
She claims the director told her, “Don’t make too much of a problem. I’m going to ask [Bynes] not to spit in your face. But you have to keep your cool.”
In a video of “The Literals,” starring Bynes, Bolleau, and a third actress, Bynes takes a sip of lemon water and spits the liquid towards her costars. Here’s a GIF of the the scene that made it to air:
The new docuseries, which aired on Investigation Discovery and is streaming on Max and Discovery+, explores the toxic culture behind several popular Nickelodeon shows from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Following the series’ great success with the initial four episodes, the network pulled together a fifth episode — called “Breaking the Silence” — with never-before-seen footage and new interviews with Drake Bell, Giovonnie Samuels, Bryan Hearne, and Shane Lyons.
Hearne and his mother Tracey Brown were asked to react to Bolleau’s story and Brown, noting that Bolleau was one of the few Black actors on The Amanda Show, called the incident “racist.” Hearne was stunned speechless, but added, “Oh my god, that hit me really hard.”
Bynes didn’t participate in the docuseries, which also revealed stories behind shows like Drake & Josh, All That, and iCarly. It was previously reported that Bynes declined to take an interview because she didn’t have a “bad experience” at Nickelodeon.
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is streaming on Max and Discovery+.
