Jennette McCurdy is unabashedly critical of Ariana Grande behavior on “Sam & Cat” filming
In her new memoir “I am Glad My Mom Died,” former Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy is unabashedly critical of Ariana Grande, who co-starred with McCurdy on the “iCarly” and “Victorious” spin-off series “Sam & Cat.” While filming the show, Grande’s fame as a pop artist began to skyrocket, despite the fact that the show only lasted for one season on Nickelodeon.
After Grande began missing filming “regularly” to “go sing at award shows, record new songs, and do press for her upcoming album,” McCurdy says that she grew to detest Grande (via Entertainment Tonight). Instead, McCurdy had to “angrily hold down the fort.”
“The week where I was told Ariana would not be here at all, and that they would write around her absence this episode by having her character be locked in a box. Are you. Kidding me,” McCurdy writes. “So I have to turn down movies while Ariana’s off whistle-toning at the Billboard Music Awards? Fuck. This.”
McCurdy said that she “booked two features during ‘iCarly,'” but ultimately declined them because “the ‘iCarly’ team would not write [her] out of episodes to go shoot them.” In order to focus on her singing career, Grande was given permission to miss episodes.
“This is what it is. Ariana misses work in pursuit of her music career while I act with a box,” McCurdy continued. “I’m pissed about it. And I’m pissed at her. Jealous of her.”
McCurdy explained, “Ariana is at the stage in her career where she’s popping up on every 30 Under 30 list that exists. And I’m at the stage in my career where my team is excited that I’m the new face of Rebecca Bonbon, a tween clothing line featuring a cat with her tongue sticking out. Sold exclusively at Walmart. And I frequently make the mistake of comparing my career to Ariana’s. I can’t help it. I’m constantly in the same environment as her, and she doesn’t exactly try to hide her successes.”
In the end, when Grande arrived to set one day and said, “the previous evening playing charades at Tom Hanks’ house.” McCurdy was completely turned off by her.
“That was the moment I broke,” McCurdy said. “I couldn’t take it anymore. Music performances and magazine covers… whatever, I’ll get over it. But playing a family game at national treasure, two-time Academy Award–winner and six-time nominee Tom Hanks’s house? I’m done.”
From then on, “I didn’t like her. I couldn’t like her,” adding, “Pop star success I could handle, but hanging out with Sheriff Woody, with Forrest fucking Gump? This has gone too far. So now, every time she misses work, it feels like a personal attack.”
The book “I am Glad My Mom Died” has just been released and is already the best-selling item on Amazon. McCurdy claims that Nickelodeon offered her $300,000 in hush money to keep quiet about the alleged abuse she experienced with behind the scenes, which is just one of numerous disturbing disclosures from her years working at Nickelodeon included in the biography.