The actress, singer and writer Jennette McCurdy surprised her fans by launching her biography where she recounts controversial situations she experienced in the Nickelodeon youth series iCarly. For the work, she chose a marketing and controversial title: “I’m glad my mother died.”
In weeks, the book was at the top of the non-fiction bestseller ranking published by The New York Times and is a boom in bookstores in the United States and the world. Among other revelations, he says that he was offered $300,000 not to talk about the abuse he suffered in the series while playing Sam Puckett.
In the pages of her new book, the 30-year-old actress recounts how a man she refers to as “The Creator” (the Creator) would have “emotionally abused” her, offering her alcohol and sexualizing her.
Many claim that the “Creator” would be Dan Schneider, showrunner of the program who parted ways with Nickelodeon in 2018. That year, as The New York Times points out, Schneider was accused of having verbally abused different members of the company, including young people. minor actors and actresses
In her memoirs, McCurdy recounts how the “Creator” first gave her a taste of alcohol when she was just 18 years old, encouraging her to take “a sip” of his drink.
According to McCurdy, he told her: “No one is looking, Jennette. Are you OK. The Victorious guys get drunk together all the time. iCarly kids are so wholesome. We need to give them a bit of an edge.” “The Creator” mentioned “the guys from Victorious” because this was another of the series that he produced.
In turn, McCurdy denounced that in the production they sexualized her and even photographed her in a bikini. At that time, she remembers feeling “uncomfortable” with her body, a problem she had had at least since she was 11 years old and she was forced to follow strict diets.
“She pats my shoulders and then the pat turns into a massage,†recalls the actress. “My shoulders have many knots, but I don’t want the Creator to remove them. I want to say something, tell him to stop, but I am very afraid of offending him, â€she continues.
In this sense, she also relives how the Creator directed (literally) her first kiss, which was with actor Nathan Kress and, far from what she dreamed, it happened in front of and not behind the scenes.
I don’t want my first kiss to be like this. I want my first kiss to be a real first kiss, not a kiss for a TV show,” McCurdy noted.
After iCarly ended, McCurdy starred in Sam for a year.
After living these experiences from 2007 to 2012, the period of time in which she played Sam in iCarly, the actress affirms that senior Nickelodeon executives offered her $ 300,000 so that she would not speak publicly about what she had gone through.
“Manager number 2 intervenes […] Well, think of it as a thank you gift,” McCurdy says the executive told him, implying that it was “free money.” “No, it’s not. This is not free money. This seems to me like money to keep quiet â€, thinks the actress.
“Nickelodeon is offering me $300,000 not to speak publicly about my experience on the show? My personal experience of Creator abuse? Shouldn’t they have some sort of moral compass?” wrote Jennette, who obviously turned down the offer.
Asked about his connection to the actors and actresses he worked with, Schneider said in an interview with The New York Times that “I wouldn’t have the long-term friendships and continuing loyalty of so many respectable people if I had mistreated my actors of any age.” especially minors.”
In a 2021 note, the producer claims to be “very aware” of what is being said about him. He believes that gossip about his dealings is “ridiculous†and that social media should not freely push “any lieâ€. “The comedy was totally innocent,” he said.
When she began to participate in iCarly (which months ago launched her reboot without her character), Jennette was only 15 years old. She had started in the world of acting because her mother Debra wanted it that way.
Miranda Cosgrove, the protagonist of the series, spoke to the Times and claimed to have been unaware of what was happening with her partner.
“When you’re young, you’re too caught up in your own world and don’t realize that other people are going through much harder things than you are,” the 29-year-old actress said.
