Man, this one takes us back…
Remember the feud between Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande?? Sam & Cat may have been a kids show, but its young stars still had one of the biggest co-star falling out stories of all time.
Photos: Stars Who Refused To Film Scenes Together
First, Jennette infamously boycotted the Kids Choice Awards despite being nominated (Ari won btw). She later tweeted a telling explanation, saying:
“I was put in an uncomfortable, compromising, unfair situation (many of you have guessed what it is) and I had to look out for me. I chose to not go because sticking up for what is right and what is fair is what my mom taught me is ALWAYS the most important thing.”
That “unfair situation”? According to reports at the time (which Jennette seemed to be confirming with shady social media posts), Ariana was getting paid more money on the show! The future 7 Rings singer denied all the rumors flying around at the time, the worst of which was that her team was demanding Jennette be replaced with someone more “clean-cut” (she’d just been the victim of a sort of revenge porn as her ex allegedly leaked her lingerie pics online). The iCarly alum was, as far as we could tell, holding out to renegotiate her contract — and it didn’t work. And the show got canceled.
As for the friendship, well, that conflict got even more personal. Jennette tweeted out a vicious personal statement that didn’t mention her co-star by name, but everyone kind of figured it out. She wrote:
“We aren’t better friends because being friends with you takes the ‘better’ out of me. In fact, I might possibly be the worst version of myself when I’m around you.”
Damn! She continued:
“As for what happened to our friendship, it faded once through happenstance and it is happening this time through my stance. I’m standing up for myself. I’m not playing your games, letting you manipulate me, and succumbing to your twisted perception of reality.
Where did I go? As far away from you as I can get. You won’t be hearing from me anymore because sweetheart, being a friend to you was doing so much more for you than it was doing for me. You sucked the life right out of me, and I want my life back.”
All this built to a sort of official BFF breakup:
“So for these sincere reasons, I am officially dropping you as a friend. If I see you, I won’t turn the other way and run (even though I want to). Instead, I’ll just smile and end the conversation as quickly as possible, because no offense, but I don’t want any of you rubbing off on me. Actually, that’s pretty offensive. Oh well.”
Pretty harsh, right??
Related: iCarly Revival Went WILD With How They Wrote Off Sam!
Well, that’s nothing! She went on to satirize her former co-star in a web series she wrote and starred in called What’s Next For Sarah? In the semi-autobiographical series, Jennette played a former child star who got fired from her show. Her fictional co-star was a girl named “Gloriana” who hit high notes and wore an even higher ponytail. The character is self-centered and annoying. Online commenters seemed to agree in unison that it was pretty transparently shading Ariana, whose stans did NOT take it well.
OK, so fast forward to late last week.
Jennette is retired from acting, but she’s still interested in a career in show business as a comedy writer and director. On the latest episode of her podcast Empty Inside, she interviews one of her heroes, Orange is the New Black actor Mike Birbiglia, and the conversation comes around to his movie Don’t Think Twice. The improv-centered comedy features a plotline where one actor gets super successful while his co-stars don’t, and it hit home for Jennette. She shared:
“The themes of that movie so resonated with me. I was on a Nickelodeon show, and initially I had been told, ‘it’s going to be your show.’ And then a couple weeks beforehand they were like, ‘oh, it’s going to be a two-hander.’ And they go, ‘and your co-star is gonna be Ariana Grande.’”
Wow! Sounds like she was positioned to be adversaries with Ari right from the start! But she admits there was bitterness on her part — but it didn’t develop until later. She recalls:
“I’m like, ‘OK, cool.’ I kind of knew her, she’d been on another Nickelodeon show, and I’d seen her at events and things, but I didn’t know her well. And then we started the show, and then her explosion into Ariana Grande fame happened in our first 20 episodes.”
She doesn’t mention the salary disparity controversy — but does say that standing next to that explosion into superstardom caused her to get pretty badly burned:
“She would have to miss work because she’d be pulled in all directions, she had to do radio shows, the Billboard Awards, the Grammys… She’s performing at the Grammys, and I’m like acting on the show with a box because they decided for that week her character needs to be trapped in a box so she can go perform at the Grammys.”
Ouch! No wonder she felt put upon! We’re angry on her behalf! Though it actually sounds like producers were treating her like trash, moreso than Ariana herself. But that didn’t stop her from seething with envy over her co-star’s success.
Related: Jennette Says Her Stage Mom PURPOSELY Made Her Anorexic!
However, the way she describes the jealousy now, it’s clear she looks back on it as a wholly unhealthy reaction that she shouldn’t have had:
“And I was like, what… I deserve more, I deserve- I didn’t even do music [or] want to do pop star things, so I don’t know why I’m comparing myself to that person. But seeing your movie was really helpful with processing the bitterness and the jealousy and wondering, well why is it there and what is that? It kind of motivated me to work on myself more and work on getting to the bottom of why I’m comparing myself to this person and why is just being me not enough? I love those themes.”
Wow! So mature!
This is probably the most insight we’ve ever gotten into this feud! While she doesn’t deny there were real issues, it sounds like she feels quite differently these days about her reaction to some of the circumstances.
It’s a great conversation, and you can listen to the whole thing (below)!
[Image via Nickelodeon/YouTube.]
The post Jennette McCurdy Finally Reveals REAL Story Behind Ariana Grande Feud! appeared first on Perez Hilton.
