Before Ariana Grande became a pop megastar, she was best known for playing Cat Valentine on Nickelodeon’s Victorious and its spinoff Sam & Cat. Now, she is looking back on that time with a new perspective.
Appearing on the latest episode of Penn Badgley‘s Podcrushed podcast, Grande opened up about auditioning for Victorious at 14 years old and how special that felt at the time. However, she is also “reprocessing” her time on the show in light of the recent Investigation Discovery documentary series Quiet on Set.
“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 (per Variety). “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.”
While Grande said she is grateful for her time at Nickelodeon, she also stated how she’s “reprocessing [my] relationship to it a little bit now, if that makes sense.”
This comes after the Quiet on Set docuseries, which documented children’s TV shows from the late 1990s and early 2000s, with former child stars speaking out about their alleged experiences of abuse, sexism, and racism.
From left: Daniella Monet, Ariana Grande, Avan Jogia, Victoria Justice, Leon Thomas III, Elizabeth Gillies, Matt Bennett on ‘Victorious’; Lisa Rose / © Nickelodeon / Courtesy: Everett Collection
While Grande didn’t address the docuseries specifically, she did say it’s been “devastating” to hear stories from former child stars, whom she referred to as “survivors.” She also shared her thoughts on how to make children’s television shows safer.
“I think the environment needs to be made safer if kids are going to be acting, and I think there should be therapists,” she explained. “I think parents should allowed to be wherever they want to be, and I think not only on kids’ sets.”
She continued, “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.”
Nobody from Victorious appeared in the Quiet on Set docuseries, but footage from the show was aired to highlight examples of inappropriate content. Grande said looking back at old clips from the show now makes her feel uncomfortable.
“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,” she shared. “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 s***’… 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 added.