In a revealing episode of her podcast Empty Inside aired in February 2021, former iCarly star Jennette McCurdy shared her significant career shift with guest Anna Faris. She disclosed that she made the conscious decision to step back from acting a few years ago. Instead, she is now channeling her creative energy into writing and directing projects, alongside her podcast hosting duties. This transformation marks a pivotal moment in her career, showcasing her desire to explore different avenues in the entertainment industry that resonate more authentically with her aspirations and personal growth.

During the podcast, Jennette expressed her profound feelings of shame regarding her past acting roles. “My experience with acting is, I’m so ashamed of the parts I’ve done in the past,” she revealed. This sentiment is deeply explored in her 2022 memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, where she articulates her struggle with feeling unfulfilled by the roles she portrayed. Jennette candidly shared, “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 reflected on her early experiences in television, stating, “I did the shows that I was on from like 13 to 21, and by 15, I was already embarrassed.” Her feelings of embarrassment were compounded by the fact that her peers did not view her Nickelodeon fame as something to be proud of. “My friends at 15, they’re not like, ‘Oh, cool, you’re on this Nickelodeon show.’ It was embarrassing.”

Despite her mixed feelings about her acting past, Jennette is open to the idea of a potential comeback. In an interview with E! News in October 2022, she expressed, “I do feel like only through writing the book have I gotten to a place where I think there might be a way of exploring acting that doesn’t carry that baggage that I carried with me for so long.” Her newfound perspective suggests that she might be willing to re-engage with acting, especially if she can create opportunities that feel authentic to her. “Maybe if I write something for myself. I think that’d really be maybe one of the only ways I could kind of try exploring it again,” she noted, highlighting her desire for a more empowering approach to her craft.