Jennette McCurdy Got Real About How Her Friendship With Miranda Cosgrove Helped Her

When it was announced in late 2020 that there’d be an iCarly revival, the Nickelodeon show’s stans were shook — particularly because the cast list for the series (which will stream on Paramount+) had so many familiar names. Miranda Cosgrove will represide her role as Carly, while Nathan Kress and Jerry Trainor are returning as Freddie and Spencer, respectively. But one star was missing: Jennette McCurdy, who played Carly’s bestie, Sam. The 28-year-old retired from acting in 2017, so some fans expected her absence. Still, Jennette McCurdy’s quotes about her friendship with Miranda Cosgrove and Nathan Kress will have you in your feels.

It’s sad to think about McCurdy not returning to iCarly, but she experience a lot during her time as a child actor. On a February 2021 episode of her podcast, Empty Inside, the filmmaker said she’d worked in Hollywood since she was 6 years old, and by the time she was 10 or 11, she was her family’s main source of income.

McCurdy has also expressed that her acting career made her feel shame, unfulfillment, and resentment. After retiring from on-screen work, she decided to pursue directing and screenwriting (which sounds so much healthier for her). But, despite all the trauma of being a child actor, the podcast host is still rightfully nostalgic about one unique aspect of working on a show like iCarly: having amazing coworkers.

“I had great friends in [my costars] Miranda and Nathan, and even Jerry, who was a bit older than us but was wonderful in trying to cultivate that kind of… younger environment," she said on an April 28 episode of Empty Inside. "It was better in that aspect—having some friends my age was helpful and healthy.” She further described her time with her Nick peers as family-like and added, “even though you're all kids trying to be adults, you can still, in that regard, try to connect with one another."

Every cloud has a silver lining, and it sounds like building friendships on set was a positive aspect of McCurdy’s time as a child actor. Even though she’s choosing to not reprising her role as Sam in iCarly’s reboot, it’s heartwarming to know she found a sense of home in her fellow iCarly stars (and, word is Cosgrove and McCurdy are still close pals — yay)!