When Jennette McCurdy was 16, she was in her third year on the hit Nickelodeon teen sitcom iCarly. Millions of young viewers admired her comical portrayal. sum packeta wise companion to its title character, who took pride in the fact that her lucrative job helped support her family.
McCurdy also lived under the strict control of her mother, Debra, who oversaw her career. Her diet consisted of shredded low-calorie bologna and lettuce sprayed with dressing. I even bathed in
Her mother performed breast and vaginal exams, which she said were cancer tests, and shaved her daughter’s legs while McCurdy received little education about the changes her body was going through.
She struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder, an eating disorder, and anxiety caused by the constant attention she received as a celebrity, but felt trapped by her job. She believed she owed her unwavering loyalty to her mother, who had recently recovered from breast cancer.
Debra McCurdy passed away in 2013, and Jennette, now 30, is now managing the gravitational pull of her mother who led her to a deal that brought her visibility and financial security while managing virtually every aspect of her daughter’s existence. I’m considering it though.
When Jennette McCurdy wrote Simon and Schuster’s memoir, due out August 9, it was clear to her that her relationship with her mother would provide the story’s strength. It’s the heartbeat of ,” she recently said.
The book is titled “I’m Glad My Mom Died” and its cover depicts McCurdy’s face with a small, half-smiling face holding a pink urn with confetti peeking out from the rim. This presentation may be offensive to some readers. I know the author very well. But she also feels that it accurately sums up a harrowing yet laughable coming-of-age story.
She said that when she grows up like her, she feels kindness and anger at anyone she sees, and wields immense power while fighting for her life. . It’s totally my sense of humor. “
“I feel like I’ve done the work to complete the process and win titles and ideas that feel provocative,” she added.
McCurdy may have the resume of a seasoned Hollywood veteran, but he acted like a wide-eyed tourist when he visited New York City in late June. Over afternoon tea at a restaurant, she stares at fellow patrons, asks for Broadway theater recommendations, and blames herself for a Transcendental Meditation class near her home in Los Angeles.
“So far I haven’t seen any results,” she said with a laugh.
Regarding the new initiative, McCurdy said: A lot of my life has been about forcing and imposing things. So if you feel something is going well, leave it alone.
As McCurdy recounts in her memoir, she was six years old when she began auditioning for acting. Guided into her work by her mother.
Growing up in Southern California, McCurdy starred in TV commercials and shows like: “Mad TV” “Malcolm in the Middle” When “CSI” Before landing on iCarly, which debuted in 2007. About the moment she found out she had booked ‘iCarly’, she wrote: Mom will be happy in the end. Her dream has come true. “
McCurdy endured various embarrassments and resentments at Nickelodeon. There she writes that she was photographed in a bikini at a wardrobe fitting and was encouraged to drink alcohol by an intimidating figure she simply called the Creator. Without intervening or speaking up, he instructed Jennette that this was the price of showbiz success. “Everyone wants what you have,” she said to her daughter.
When McCurdy was promised an ‘iCarly’ spinoff, she thought she’d be given her own show, only to receive a co-star slot “Sam & Cat” This paired her with future pop music sensation Ariana Grande.
There, she says, these show bosses prevented Grande from pursuing career opportunities outside of the show while she was successful in her extracurricular activities. That was the moment I broke. “
As McCurdy grew older and more independent, his relationship with his mother became more strained. The book reproduces emails in which her mother called her a “slut,” “slut,” and “ugly monster,” and concludes by demanding payment for her refrigerator. When Debra died of a recurrence of cancer, her then-21-year-old Jennette was set free to navigate a complex world without her guidance while battling destructive relationships, bulimia, anorexia, and alcohol abuse. I decided to gate.
‘iCarly’ ended its first run in 2012, and ‘Sam & Cat’ ran for only one season from 2013 to 2014. McCurdy then wrote that he turned down his $300,000 offer from Nickelodeon. network. (A Nickelodeon spokeswoman declined to comment.)
She was free to take back her personal life and pursue other projects such as Netflix’s sci-fi series Between. However, she found it difficult to let go of her resentment for the treatment she received during her childhood. As she said in an interview, “I feel like all these decisions are being made on my behalf and I was the last person to know about them. rice field.”
Even now, McCurdy has found that revisiting her childhood days of stardom resurfaces raw feelings about the industry and the parents who failed to protect her.
“My childhood and adolescence were very exploited,” she says, her eyes brimming with tears. “It still gives my nervous system a reaction to say it. People sometimes had the best intentions and didn’t know what they were doing, and if they did, they knew exactly what they were doing.”
Marcus McCurdy, the oldest of Jennette’s three siblings, said her mother was consistently capricious when they were growing up.
“You were always walking on eggshells. Are you a good mom or a crazy mom today?” he said. “One day she was fine and the next she was yelling at everyone. All the holidays were very dramatic. If something wasn’t perfect she would go insane at Christmas.”
Friends and colleagues from Jennette McCurdy’s days as a child actor said she could feel the strain in her relationship with her mother, even though she didn’t yet know the exact details.
“Jennette is outgoing, very positive, bright and electric,” said pop singer and “American Idol” finalist David Archuleta. “I could tell that she was very cautious and very protective of her mother and that they were very close.”
Archuleta, whose career was strictly controlled by his father when he was a minor, said such arrangements could be destructive for the child.
“You’re always with that parent, so they don’t take you around someone else,” Archuleta said. You see it as ‘oh they’re looking for me’ and they make you feel like everyone is against you.”
Archuleta added that parents can become toxic over time. “It’s like, ‘You can’t make your own decisions. You can’t do anything. You’re too stupid.’
“iCarly” star Miranda Cosgrove said that she and McCurdy quickly became close on the show, but were initially unaware of the many problems their friend faced.
“When you’re young, you’re in your own head,” Cosgrove said.
Cosgrove added in a softer voice:
For McCurdy, opening himself up to the wider world has been a long process. In her late teens to her early twenties, she wrote: Wall Street Journal essay It shared some of her insights into child stardom.
“If I had been honest at the time, I would have said, ‘Yeah, I wrote this and then I spit it out for four minutes,'” she explained.
A few years ago, McCurdy began writing a series of new essays, including some on motherhood, which she shared with her then-manager. “My manager sent me a nice email back saying, ‘This is great. I don’t know what to do with this.'” I can’t forget the “xoxo” at the end. (McCurdy no longer works with the manager.)
Instead, she started a one-woman show in Los Angeles called “I’m Glad My Mom Died.” “I really wanted to build it more, get more into the childhood aspect of the story, and arc it in a way that only a book can,” she explained.
Marcus McCurdy said he supported his sister’s decision to write a memoir.
“Our grandmothers are very offended by that title,” Marcus said, adding that he and his sister share a similar sense of humor. it’s something,” he said. “I’m miserable, my life sucks.” Or find humor in these truly tragic things. “
Archuleta also credits McCurdy with helping him write the book. “It gave her back some of her strength, her confidence,” he said.
McCurdy has written another essay and novel about himself in his twenties. (That protagonist is “either in some ways someone I want to be, or in other ways someone I hope never to be. But that’s probably me, right?”)
Aside from a few watch parties her family held for her early episodic television work, McCurdy told me, “I haven’t seen any of the shows I’ve been on.” For her, these were a record of her suffering, a reminder of the helplessness she felt at the time.
A few years ago, after her Netflix series was cancelled, McCurdy decided to take a break from acting. She’s not an eating disorder, she’s not a casting director, she’s not an agent, she’s not my mom. my. ” She has not recently been part of Paramount+’s revived ‘iCarly’. But McCurdy said her experience on her one-man show showed her that her performance could have a constructive way for her in the future.
“I felt it was important to mend some of the very heavy and complicated relationships I had with acting,” she said. I felt like I became myself.
McCurdy may still feel uncomfortable looking back at his past, but he wants to focus on the present and see the friends and colleagues who are a part of his life.
“Now I have very supportive and loving people around me,” she said. ”
