Jennifer Aniston bonds with Jennette McCurdy
Before Jennifer Aniston starred in the eponymous role in the upcoming series based on Jennette McCurdy’s 2022 memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” she met the child actor turned author. She told me People that they quickly bonded, noting that they “had a lot in common” and “had very similar mothers.”
McCurdy rose to fame at the age of fifteen, becoming the co-star of the 2007 Nickelodeon sitcom ‘iCarly’ alongside Miranda Cosgrove, Nathan Kress and Jerry Trainor. The show lasted six seasons, and then McCurdy co-hosted the spinoff “Sam and Cat” with Ariana Grande from 2013 to 2014. In “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” McCurdy opens up about her turbulent experience as a child star, highlighting the powerful role of her obsessive and abusive mother, Debra, who passed away in 2013.
Apple TV greenlit a series adaptation of McCurdy’s book in July, with Aniston both executive producing and starring as a fictionalized version of the titular mother. “When I came across an option on my desk, an offer to play this character and work with Jennette and (executive producer) Sharon Horgan and (production company) LuckyChap, I was almost immediately intrigued, flattered and excited,” Aniston told People. “It’s going to be great. It’s going to be pretty awesome to start filming it.”
Aniston called the memoir “beautifully written” and praised McCurdy as “so special,” saying, “The fact that she is the young woman that she is, having lived that life, is nothing short of remarkable.”
As for the parallels between McCurdy and Aniston’s mothers, the star didn’t elaborate, but she has mentioned a contentious relationship with her late mother, Nancy Dow, in previous interviews. In 2018, she told the Sunday Telegraph“She was a model and she was all about presentation and how she looked and what I looked like. I didn’t come out the model child she had hoped for.”
“I’m Glad My Mom Died” will span ten episodes, created, written and shown by McCurdy and Ari Katcher. Other executive producers include Jerrod Carmichael and Erica Kay.
