Elizabeth Gillies had to “reprocess” her time at Nickelodeon after watching ‘Quiet on Set’.
Elizabeth Gillies starred on Nickelodeon in the late 2000s
The 30-year-old actress played Jade West on the musical sitcom ‘Victorious’ in the late 2000s alongside pop star Ariana Grande but after watching the Discovery+ documentary in which a number of former child stars from the network alleged instances of abuse and a toxic working environment at the hands of producer Dan Schneider, felt “very lucky” that she still had her co-stars from the show to go through things with.
She told Variety: “I certainly reevaluated my experience with Ariana over FaceTime. We watched it together, and then we got together later that week or the next week, and we sort of broke the whole thing down and talked about it, and reprocessed everything together. There was a lot to go through.
“It’s tricky when you look back on something incredibly positively, and then you learn a lot of information and also revisit things as an adult through a new lens that reframe the memories in your mind a little bit, or cloud them, or taint them — maybe rightfully so. So, taking that time to thoughtfully look back, reassess and reevaluate was an important thing to do, and that’s something we did.
“I’m very lucky I have such a close relationship with my cast — and with Ari — and that we were all able to do that together, because we definitely leaned on each other, talked amongst each other and checked in with each other.”
The former ‘Dynasty’ star – who first worked with ‘Into You’ songstress Ariana when they starred together in the little-known Broadway musical ’13’ before they found mainstream success together on screen – wondered whether there should be psychologists on set for child actors as she warned that acting can quickly turn into a “total nightmare” for a child if it is not their natural “dream” and they are aware of what they are signing up for.
She said: “[Acting] is all I wanted, and all I wanted to do was go there every day and put my head down and work. I cannot imagine what it must feel like for a child that was pushed there by their parents and had no interest in acting and had to come to work and do that grueling job every single day because for me, it was a treat.
“And for someone else, I mean, what a nightmare. It’s like, if someone made me go play baseball for 10 hours a day, I’d be crying in my room at night. It’s just because it’s not what I want to do.
“Everything’s hard. Sports are hard. Acting is hard. Any job is hard.
“And if it’s not your dream and you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, it can be a total nightmare, and it can be very damaging to your life, your mind and your mental health.”
In the film, former ‘Drake and Josh star Drake Bell revealed that he had been subjected to “extensive and brutal” abuse at the hands of Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck while others claimed that ‘iCarly’ producer Dan had created a “hostile environment” as he made the likes of Amanda Bynes and Miranda Cosgrove into teen stars.
