Ariana Grande has shared her stories about her time spent working as a child actress on Nickelodeon, as well as her thoughts on the documentary series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which was produced by Investigation Discovery.
During an episode of Penn Badgley’s podcast, Podcrushed, which was broadcast on Wednesday, June 12, the thirty-year-old Wicked actor revealed her childhood acting career on Nickelodeon as well as her reaction to the revelatory documentary series. Dan Schneider, who was a central figure in Quiet on Set, was the creator of both the sitcom Victorious and the spinoff Sam & Cat, in which Grande featured. Both of these programs were developed by Schneider.
The documentary series investigated a number of the toxic cultures that were prevalent in children’s television programs throughout the 1990s and 2000s. These shows included a number of series that Schneider created, such as All That, The Amanda Show, and Zoey 101. The sexual assault, harassment, and racial discrimination that reportedly occurred behind the scenes of the popular Nickelodeon series were details that were provided by former cast members, writers, and crew members of the franchise.
“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 who have come forward…there’s no word for how devastating that is to hear,” the Grammy winner added. “It’s a terrible thing to hear.”
She proceeded by saying, “I believe that the environment needs to be made safer if children are going to be acting, and I believe that there should be therapists, and I believe that parents should be allowed to be wherever they want to be.” She went on to say that parents should be permitted everywhere, “not only on kids sets.”
“If anyone wants to do this or music or anything at any level of exposure that it means to be on TV or to do music with a major label or whatever, [it] should be in the contract,” Grande added. “I think it should be possible for anyone to do this or music or anything.”
“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,” the multi-hyphenate revealed. “Young performers are vulnerable to reactions to their performances from adults on set,” she said. “Video Village is really taking advantage of how much it means to younger performers.”
Her next statement was as follows: “You’re like, ‘Oh s—, I’m doing something fantastic. To the extent that this is hilarious and this is nice.'”
However, Grande acknowledged that she is speaking from her own personal experience on her show. She said that she and her castmates, who included Victoria Justice, Daniella Monet, Leon Thomas III, Matt Bennett, Elizabeth Gillies, and Avan Jogia, “pushed the envelope with [their] humor.”
“And the innuendos were like, we were told and convinced as well that it was the cool differentiation,” she said. And I don’t know, I guess it all just happened so fast, and now that I’m just watching back on some of the footage, I’m like, ‘That’s… damn, really?'”
Additional information was provided by Grande, who said, “The things that weren’t approved for the network were snuck on to like our website or whatever it was, and that is another discovery.” But I’m going to go right in…I suppose you could say that I’m upset.
After that, the singer from Thank U, Next stated that she is of the opinion that “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.” She believes that this is something that should be required for those who are pursuing career paths that involve such large scales.
“While Ariana’s personal experience as a child actor was not the same as those who have spoken out, the issues that have recently been raised have allowed her to have a look back at her time as a young professional through an adult lens with a new and different perspective,” a source close to the singer tells PEOPLE. “This is a new and different perspective.”
According to the source, “Ariana is devastated by the stories from survivors who have come forward and supports and urges more conversations to take place around how to protect young professionals in the industry.” This statement was made in reference to the story that was shared on the podcast.
Every Wednesday, new episodes of Podcrushed are uploaded to podcast streaming sites after being released. Max allows users to view all five episodes of the show Quiet on Set when they are released.