Yahoo News Ariana Grande Still “Reprocessing” Time on Nickelodeon Amid ‘Quiet on Set’ Allegations
Ariana Grande is reflecting on her time on Nickelodeon’s Victorious and Sam & Cat and admits that she is now “reprocessing” her experience amid Investigation Discovery’s Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV docuseries.
While appearing on the most recent episode of the Podcrushed podcast, co-hosted by Penn Badgley, who recently starred in her “The Boy Is Mine” music video, Grande recalled her time starring on Victorious and Sam & Cat, both of which were series created by Dan Schneider, who was a key subject in Quiet on Set.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Ariana Grande Stalks Penn Badgley in "The Boy Is Mine" Music Video, Featuring Brandy and Monica
Kids' Choice Awards: Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Beyoncé, Travis Kelce, Zendaya Among Nominees
“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,” Grande 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.”
Grande explained that she’s been reflective of her time on the show and her “relationship to it has and is currently and has been changing and I’m reprocessing a lot of what the experience was like.”
In the Quiet on Set docuseries, former actors, writers and crew members from series produced by Schneider including All That, The Amanda Show and Zoey 101 alleged toxic work environments, sexual abuse, harassment and racial discrimination.
Though Grande didn’t name creator Schneider by name or the docuseries, she noted that she thinks a working environment “needs to be made safer if kids are going to be acting” and “there should be therapists” for young performers to have access to.
“I think parents should allowed to be wherever they want to be, and I think not only on kids’ sets. I think 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.”
“A lot of people don’t have the support that they need to get through performing at that level at such a young age but also dealing with some of the things that the survivors have come forward [about] … there’s not a word for how devastating that is to hear about,” she added. “I think 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.”
When further reflecting on her time on the shows, Grande said the “beautiful thing” is that she, along with her co-star and friend Gillies “got to fall in love with these characters that we created and learn what it feels like to be so in a character that you can’t separate yourself from it” but “the rest of it is still being worked on.”
Grande went on to praise the “cultural shift” that is happening in which toxic environments are being addressed. She recalled that while working as a young performer there’s “a strange pattern that occurs where it’s really taking advantage of how much it means to the young performer to get a laugh from Video Village. You’re like, ‘Oh shit, I’m doing something great. Like, this is funny, this is good.’”
During the Quiet on Set docuseries, footage from Victorious was played as examples of how some of the content was inappropriate. Though Grande does not reference any scenes in particular, she did admit that she is upset when looking back at some of the clips.
“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,'” she said. “And the things that weren’t approved for the network were snuck on to like our website or whatever or was. And that is another discovery. I guess I’m upset, yeah.”
The singer added that she believes that for anyone pursuing careers with such large scales, “there should be an element that is mandatory of therapy, of a professional person to unpack what this experience of your life-changing so drastically does to you at a young age, at any age.”
All five episodes of Quiet on Set are available to stream on Max. Following the series’ release, Schneider spoke out about the allegations, which he denied, and has sued Investigation Discovery for defamation over his portrayal, accusing the company of falsely implying that he sexually abused children who worked on the Nickelodeon series he created and ran.
In a statement, Schneider acknowledged “mistakes I made and poor judgment I exhibited during my time at Nickelodeon” but said he had “no choice but to take legal action against the people behind it.” Schneider seeks unspecified damages and a court order forcing producers to remove allegedly defamatory portions of the docuseries or have it completely taken down.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
