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Ariana Grande is reflecting on her experience working at Nickelodeon amid the recent allegations against Dan Schneider and the release of ‘Quiet On Set.’
On Wednesday, June 12, an episode of the podcast, ‘Podcrushed,’ was released via YouTube, which featured Grande as a guest. During the hour-long “part one” episode, Grande reflected on working as a child actor at Nickelodeon. According to IMDb, Grande starred in the network’s show ‘Victorious,’ between 2010-2013.
According to the singer, she was 14 years old when she auditioned for the show.
“And we were all very excited, and we got cast, and we were — it was the best news we could hear,” she explained.
Grande explained that she and her fellow castmates made “special memories” and “feel so privileged” to have been a part of “something so special for young kids.” However, she believes they are now “reprocessing” their “relationship to it.”
The singer went on to explain that child actors should be able to have their parents on set with them. Additionally, she believes that entertainment contracts should include mandatory therapy sessions for young stars.
“I’m reprocessing a lot of what the experience was like… [but] yeah, I think that the environment needs to be made safer if kids are going to be acting…” Grande explained.
Before concluding on the topic, the singer shared that it’s been “devastating” to hear the accounts of “survivors who have come forward” with their experiences at Nick.
“So, 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…” she reiterated.
Grande ultimately detailed some of the “beautiful” things she remembers from her time at Nick.
Social media users reacted to Grande’s statements in The Shade Room’s comment section.
Instagram user @iykyk.iydknyk wrote, “A lot of people don’t realize they were abused until they get older and think about the situations they went through as a kid.”
As The Shade Room previously reported, Grande’s ‘Victorious’ co-star Victoria Justice broke her silence about her time working at Nick in May. At the time, she also spoke on the docuseries ‘Quiet On Set,’ which exposed the unsafe work environment Nick provided to its child stars.
Additionally, the docuseries explored Nick producer Dan Schneider and how he negatively influenced the work environment.
“Something that was very evident in the documentary is that Dan had a very large ego, and sometimes that ego clouded his better judgment and affected the way he treated people, and there were times I felt like I was being treated unfairly,” she said at the time.
A few days before Justice broke her silence, fellow Nick actor Lori Beth Denberg accused Schneider of sexual misconduct, per The Shade Room. Denberg alleged that she was 19 when Schneider began preying on her, showing her pornography clips, and fondling her body parts.
In response, Schneider reacted to Denberg’s allegations.
