Ariana Grande seems to have forgotten a huge chunk of her career as a Nickelodeon star before she became a pop icon and movie star.
During a Q&A after a screening of the upcoming movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Wicked, the cast was asked what role earned them their Screen Actors Guild (SAG) membership. The 31-year-old singer, who plays Glinda, gave her answer before quickly realizing she glossed over an entire six years of her life working for the children’s television network.
The slip left fans wondering if it was just a simple brain fart or if she blocked out the memory as some sort of trauma response.
Ariana Grande breaks silence on disturbing Quiet On Set allegations
Like many stars, Ariana got her start on as a child actor. In 2009, she was cast as Cat Valentine on the teen sitcom Victorious, reprising the role in a Victorious/iCarly spin-off series Sam and Cat in 2013. She also starred in an original Nickelodeon movie called Swindle in 2013.
Despite starting her career in television, when she was asked by the Q&A’s moderator on Sunday, “How did you get your SAG card?” Ariana answered Don’t Look Up, a movie that came out just a few years ago in 2021. It wasn’t until Wicked director Jon M. Chu gave his answer – being an extra on the Nickelodeon show The Secret World of Alex Mack – that it clicked.
The realization swept across Ariana’s face as she she waved her arms around, mouthing ‘Oh my God!’ and turned to costar Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba, to point out her mistake. Cynthia then interjected, “She forgot about Nickelodeon!” as Ariana covered her mouth in disbelief.
Ariana admitted “I forgot six years of my life” as she laughed off the blunder, adding “Oh, God. I don’t remember anything. It’s a blur.”
Fans quickly defended the slip, speculating that perhaps she unconsciously blocked those years out of her memory as a “trauma response” to protect herself from remembering working for the network, which was at the center of controversy earlier this year for the alleged abuse and sexual exploitation of many of its young stars.
Though she was noticeably absent from the documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which chronicled the alleged abuse that Nickelodeon stars experienced while working for the network under Dan Schneider, clips of Ariana were used in the doc that depicted her performing inappropriate and overtly sexualized scenes as Cat Valentine.
One fan on Reddit speculated, “I really hope this was just a slip of the mind but knowing.. everything.. I wouldn’t be shocked if she purposefully has blocked it out,” while another added, “This is also a common trauma response.”
Another Redditor chimed in, “If I was on a Dan Schneider show I wouldn’t want to remember either tbh.”
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