Could ‘iCarly’ star Jeanette McCurdy ever return to acting? Hear her now
When it was announced that the hit Nickelodeon TV show iCarly was getting a reboot thanks to parent company Viacom CBS, fans wondered one thing: would the cast stay exactly the same? Would we be getting all the iconic characters back such as the goofy older brother Spencer and the geeky yet lovable Freddie?
Well, it turned out most of the original cast would be coming back, but Jeanette McCurdy who played the role of tomboy Sam Puckett confirmed she would not be returning to reprise her role in the upcoming sequel season. Now her fans are wondering if Jeanette McCurdy would ever return to acting. What did the star have to say for herself though?
Ashamed of her acting career
Jeanette McCurdy recently confessed on an episode of a podcast she hosts called “Empty Inside” that she is now “ashamed” of her acting career from when she was younger. While McCurdy was only a young teen when she played her role of Sam Puckett in iCarly during the years 2007 to 2012, she’s made it clear she hasn’t been the proudest of her acting achievements as a twenty-eight-year-old now.
The child-actress announced: “My experience with acting is, I’m so ashamed of the parts I’ve done in the past. I resent my career in a lot of ways. I feel so unfulfilled by the roles that I played and felt like it was the most cheesy, embarrassing”. She also even mentioned her role in the spin-off series of iCarly and Victorious, Sam & Cat, which she played alongside pop star Ariana Grande (who played Cat Valentine).
McCurdy admitted: “I did the shows that I was on from like 13 to 21, and by 15, I was already embarrassed. My friends at 15, they’re not like, ‘Oh, cool, you’re on this Nickelodeon show.’ It was embarrassing. And I imagine there’s a very different experience to be had with acting if you’re proud of your roles, and if you feel fulfilled by them”.
Jeanette McCurdy’s personal life
When looking back on her personal life now that she’s older, Jeanette McCurdy explained that her mother encouraged her to take on acting when she was as little as six years old: “My family didn’t have a lot of money. This was the way out, which I actually think was helpful in driving me to some degree of success”. She also added that “always, always, always, acting was difficult for me”.
The child actress mentioned that the nerves would always get the best of her when she was younger, but “Once I started to get the nerves under control was when I started to actually get some traction, but I ultimately quit after my mom passed away because with her death kind of died a lot of her ideas for my life, and that was its own journey, and a difficult one for sure”.
She remembered that one of the worst memories as a child actress for her was when she was passed over a part for the 2005 family movie, Because of Winn-Dixie, at around the age of thirteen because casting agents called her too “homely” for the role. The role was later given to AnnaSophia Robb.
Calling it quits, at least for now
When explaining to Anna Faris who was a guest on “Empty Inside”, McCurdy admitted that there was one specific incident that made her want to quit acting after Faris asked if she would ever return in front of cameras. In February of 2020, the star debuted her very personal solo live show “I’m Glad My Mom Died”.
“I wrote this one-woman show, and I performed that, and I really did not want to because of the nerves. Because of feeling like I don’t want to f- -king act anymore”, McCurdy admitted. However, she added that doesn’t necessarily mean she wouldn’t act ever again, and if the right director asked, she may reconsider coming back on set.
As of now though, Jeanette McCurdy said she wants to take on more writing & directing work. “I feel like I have a point of view, and I have a vision. We’ll see where things are in a few years”, the star said.
