Ariana Grande Is ‘Reprocessing’ Her Nickelodeon Chid Stardom After ‘Quiet On Set’

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | June 12, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | June 12, 2024 |

Ariana Grande opened up about her early roles on Nickelodeon’s Victorious and Sam & Cat, and her relationship with child stardom on the most recent episode of Penn Badgley’s “Podcrushed” podcast.

“I was 14, and I flew out to audition with Liz Gillies for Victorious, and we were all very excited, and we got cast, and it was the best news we could hear,” she said. “We were young performers who just wanted to do this with our lives more than anything, and we got to and that was so beautiful. I think we had some very special memories, and we feel so privileged to have been able to create those roles and be a part of something that was so special for a lot of young kids.”

Sounds like she’s speaking for her costars, but…I don’t know if they’d all agree. Then again, that’s basically the textbook example of the “grateful” speech you give about something when you’re about to say it actually sucked. Well, not quite, but she did say she’s “reprocessing” her “relationship to it a little bit now.” While she didn’t directly reference Dan Schneider or Quiet On Set, it’s clear that’s what she’s talking about. She said it’s been “devastating” to hear the stories of “survivors.”

“I think the environment needs to be made safer if kids are going to be acting, and I think there should be therapists. I think parents should be allowed to be wherever they want to be, and I think not only on kids’ sets. If anyone wants to do this, or music, or anything at this level of exposure, there should be in the contract something about therapy is mandatory twice a week or thrice a week or something like that.” You know she means business when she says “thrice.”

She added that she sometimes feels uncomfortable when she looks back on scenes or jokes from her shows now.

“Specifically about our show, I think that was something that we were convinced was the cool thing about us—is that we pushed the envelope with our humor. And the innuendos were … it was like the cool differentiation. And I don’t know, I think it just all happened so quickly and now looking back on some of the clips I’m like, ‘Damn, really? Oh shit’ … and the things that weren’t approved for the network were snuck on to like our website or whatever.”

“I guess I’m upset, yeah,” she said of these reflections. “The environment just needs to be made a lot safer all around and like I said I’m still in real time reprocessing my relationship to it.”