Even as Peck took on other big roles (including starring alongside Ben Kingsley in The Wackness and most recently in How I Met Your Father), many still think of him as that lovable goofball on Nickelodeon. Peck may be lovable and goofy, but there was a period in his life when he was really struggling mentally, using food, alcohol, and drugs to cope. It’s something Peck opens up about in his new memoir, Happy People Are Annoying, out March 15, 2022. In his book, Peck talks about what Drake & Josh fans didn’t know what was really going on off-screen: an internal battle of feeling like he wasn’t enough, tied in part to body image issues. But Peck has come a long way from his Nickelodeon days—and now he’s hoping his mental health journey will help others still in the midst of their darkest times.
The emotional weight of being the big, funny guy
For Peck, landing a starring role on a Nickelodeon show was a mixed blessing. “On the one hand, I was getting to perform my favorite kind of comedy on a network I dreamed of being on, but on the other hand I was introducing myself to the world in a body I didn’t want to be on,” he says. Peck was bigger as a kid—and while this was endearing to viewers, but it was not a role he felt at ease with. “People are used to a big, funny guy,” he says. “It’s synonymous with the wrapping on your favorite candy bar. It brings people pleasure and they get used to it.” Peck says people were telling him he was going to be the next Chris Farley or John Candy. “Those guys are geniuses and I would be happy to have one-tenth of the careers that they’ve had, but people weren’t comparing me to their talent; they were comparing me to their girth,” Peck says. So while he felt fortunate for his early success, he worried he’d forever be typecast as either a best friend or a bully. When he was 16, he decided to really commit to losing weight, sticking to a keto-like diet and establishing a fitness routine. Losing weight isn’t easy for anyone—celebs included—but Peck says he stayed committed by focusing on his end goal: being able to land a wider breadth of roles than what he worried would be offered to him otherwise. His commitment paid off and he lost more than 70 pounds in a year-and-a-half. But Peck’s transformation has been more than physical. His struggle to feel confident in his body affected his mental health too.
Struggling with addiction and coming out on the other side
Though Peck was physically lighter, emotionally he still felt a heavy weight. “I had lost all this weight and for the first time in my life I was in control of my eating … things were looking good for me, but my mind hadn’t caught up yet,” Peck writes in his book. “It was holding on tight to the idea that I was still powerless, that the world was unfair, and that I had to reach for something to comfort myself.” Like far too many celebs, he turned to drugs and alcohol to cope. But he’s way past that now. These days, Peck is happily married, a dedicated father, and in a much healthier place mentally. This transformation didn’t happen overnight—Peck credits regular therapy and AA to helping—but there are a few key lessons he’s learned along the way that continue to help him feel balanced. (Yes, even during a global pandemic.)
The small practices that keep him mentally well
Peck says that one of the biggest lessons he’s learned is the importance of being connected to a greater purpose. “I’m uniquely lucky because my purpose is the thing that I love and can also financially sustain me,” he says. But he realizes not everyone has that luxury; sometimes a job is just a job, and he encourages anyone who can’t marry their purpose and career to pursue it outside of work. Something else Peck says is key to his mental well-being is surrounding himself with people he loves. “When I’m not working, I like hanging out with my best friend who works in trucking or going to Dave & Buster’s with my son,” he says. It’s something Peck says he learned in part from Ben Kingsley when they were filming The Wackness. “I was asking him for advice and I thought he was going to tell me these secrets to being a movie star,” Peck says. “But what he told me was, ‘find your Apostles. Surround yourself with people who make you better.’ Since then, I’ve lived by that advice.” When Peck is having a really bad day, he has a little happiness hack that helps turn his mood around. “I like to do something nice for someone else—and it’s even better if they don’t know it was you,” he says. He adds that it can be something as small as rounding up shopping carts in a grocery store parking lot, making life a little bit easier for the employees. What Peck hopes most people take away from hearing about his own personal journey is helping others still in the midst of their struggles know that they aren’t alone. “If I’m on a rock wall and I’m holding on tight and my arms are shaking, if someone is at the top and beckoning orders to me, I just think, ‘What do you know?’ You’re up there drinking Gatorade, relaxing. But if someone is only a few feet above me on the rock wall and they’re giving me advice, I’ll listen,” Peck says. “I want people who are struggling to know I’m still on that rock wall with them, just a few steps ahead. I’m still in the fight, right there too.” Next up, take Peck’s lead and try these 65 random acts of kindness.
