'Victorious' star Daniella Monet slams Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider for allowing ‘sexualized’ scene despite objections
After Alexa Nikolas’ allegations against Nickelodeon, a former star of the network has come forward to speak against producer Dan Schneider for allegedly forcing young actors into 'sexualized' scenes.
Former Nickelodeon star Daniella Monet claimed to Insider that there was a scene in her show 'Victorious' that made her feel uncomfortable and was too sexualized for its audience. The scene, according to Monet, was left in the final cut of an episode despite her objections to the network. Monet, who played Trina Vegas on 'Victorious' from 2010 to 2013, not just blamed Dan Schneider, the creator and producer of the show, but also raised objections against Nickelodeon for allowing sexualized scenes to feature in a live show that was meant for minors.
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The actress described how the channel ignored her complaints of being forced to do a sexualized scene in which she had to apply sparkling lip gloss while eating a pickle. She added that not only did the executives OK the scene, but its Standards and Practices division would have had to sign off on it as well.
Describing 'Victorious' as a “very PC, funny, silly, friendly, chill” show, Monet, 33, revealed that some of the actors’ outfits on the show were “not age appropriate” and that she “wouldn’t even wear some of that today as an adult.” “Do I wish certain things, like, didn’t have to be so sexualized? Yeah, 100 percent,” she said. Monet also revealed that men always dominated the writers' room, noting “none of Schneider’s shows credited more than two female writers in the entirety of their runs.”
Monet’s claim comes just a week after Alexa Nikolas, who portrayed Nicole Bristow in 'Zoey 101', protested outside of Nickelodeon’s Burbank offices with her organization, Eat Predators, last week. The actor has been speaking out against the working experience with the network. Nikolas recalled one incident where Schneider screamed at her until she "broke down in tears,” also claiming that the Tenessee native would “often take photos with teenage actresses sitting on his lap.”
The actress’ comments came just weeks after Jennette McCurdy, who rose to stardom playing Sam Puckett on 'iCarly', released her memoir titled 'I’m Glad My Mom Died'. In the book, the 'Sam & Cat' alum, 30, details the trauma she experienced from being a child star. “My whole childhood and adolescence were very exploited,” she told The New York Times in August. “It still gives my nervous system a reaction to say it. There were cases where people had the best intentions and maybe didn’t know what they were doing. And also cases where they did — they knew exactly what they were doing.”
Reacting to the claims of the former stars, Russel Hicks, the former president of content and production at Nickelodeon, said, "Every single thing that Dan ever did on any of his shows was carefully scrutinized and approved." He added that the Standards and Practices division read all of the scripts for Schneider's shows and watched every episode.