Ariana Grande Says Therapy Should Be ‘Mandatory’ for Child Actors

Show business has always been a part of Ariana Grande‘s life. Before she was cast on the Nickelodeon show Victorious at 14, she was singing the national anthem at NFL games and performing on Broadway. Now, looking back on that time in her life in an interview on Penn Badgley’s podcast Podcrushed, Grande says she’s “re-processing” the experience.

“We were all very excited,” Grande remembers of being cast on Victorious. “We were young performers who just wanted to do this with our lives more than anything, and we got to and that was so beautiful.” Grande said she has “some very special memories” from the show, but is now “re-processing” her relationship to it.

That reflection comes after the docuseries Quiet on Set: the Dark Side of Kids TV explored the toxicity surrounding kids’ TV shows in the 90s and 2000s, spotlighting series produced by Dan Schneider, who created Grande’s shows Victorious and Sam & Cat. In the docuseries, former actors and others who worked on Schneider’s shows alleged that sexual abuse, harassment, and racial discrimination occurred on set.

“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 not a word for how devastating that is to hear,” Grande explained on the podcast, adding that her changing relationship to that period is still happening “in real time.”

Grande also took the opportunity to point out some safeguards that could be put in place. “I think that the environment needs to be made safer if kids are going to be acting, and I think there should be therapists, I think there should be parents allowed to be wherever they want to be,” she said. “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 — something about: ‘Therapy is mandatory twice a week.’”

Badgley noted that among young performers, “exploitation” happens frequently. “It’s undoubtedly true that anybody that’s going to be a really professional, competent, experienced, technically veteran performer by the time you’re in your 20s, you have to have been doing it for a long time,” he explained. “And I don’t think there’s anybody who’s gotten there who hasn’t experienced all these degrees of what you should and could call exploitation.” He continued, “But as you’re going through it, it’s not just that one thing. There’s a million layers to it.”

The comments come at a time when the world is just starting to pay attention to the mistreatment experienced by young people in Hollywood. Grande’s Sam & Cat co-star Jennette McCurdy spoke to the difficulties of being on-set on Nickelodeon shows in her 2022 memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, describing a figure she refers to only as “The Creator” as being “mean-spirited, controlling, and terrifying,” per Today.com. “The Creator can tear you down and humiliate you,” she wrote. “I’ve seen him do this when he fired a six-year-old on the spot for messing up a few lines on a rehearsal day.”

Other former child stars have also spoken out on disturbing experiences in the industry, from Brooke Shields in her documentary Pretty Baby to Drake Bell alleging that he experienced sexual abuse by a former dialogue and acting coach at Nickelodeon.

“This behavior is prevalent,” says Badgley, a former child actor himself.

“It’s normal,” Grande agrees, “and it’s changing.” She said she’s “glad” that the conversation is happening, noting that “It’s also just kind of a cultural shift that’s happening… it’s everywhere.” Mandating therapy for child actors, she believes, could help — and it makes sense. Child actors like Grande once was have no warning or preparation for the world stardom throws them into; the least that a studio can do is support their mental and emotional health as the success rolls in.

“There should be an element that is mandatory of therapy,” Grande emphasized, “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.”

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