Jennette McCurdy, writer of ‘I am Glad My Mother Died,’ is able to shock you

Jennette McCurdy’s telephone couldn’t be silenced.

After the discharge of her 2022 memoir, “I’m Glad My Mother Died,” the actress-turned-author acquired an endless barrage of messages and calls from pals, household, distant acquaintances, individuals she’d crossed paths with one time when she was 12 years previous.

“I heard from all people I’ve ever met. Everyone got here out of the woodwork,” McCurdy stated. Whereas many of the messages had been optimistic, she added, “I’ve modified my telephone quantity just a few instances since then. I wish to hold my interior circle fairly shut now.”

Her memoir was a uncooked, unflinching have a look at her childhood spent tethered to an abusive mom, her private battles with consuming issues and alcohol, her tumultuous teenage years as a Nickelodeon star on the sitcoms “iCarly” and “Sam & Cat” and her recalibration within the wake of her mom’s loss of life from most cancers when McCurdy was 21.

Its readership went far past McCurdy’s telephone contacts. “I’m Glad My Mother Died” was a bona fide phenomenon. It offered greater than 3 million copies and spent greater than 80 weeks on the New York Occasions Finest Vendor checklist. And it’s presently within the strategy of being tailored into an Apple TV+ sequence starring Jennifer Aniston as McCurdy’s mom.

Now, McCurdy, who’s 33, is making an attempt to inform a brand new story with the January launch of her debut novel “Half His Age.” The insular, visceral story follows Waldo, a teenage woman in Alaska who has a sexual relationship along with her middle-aged, married English instructor.

If some readers had been aghast on the title of McCurdy’s memoir or its contents, they’ll nearly definitely balk at “Half His Age,” which is a thorny exploration of energy, lust, disgrace and rage, written in McCurdy’s now-signature wry model. The e book’s cowl encompasses a close-up {photograph} of a younger lady (not McCurdy) sucking her center finger, and the intercourse scenes inside are unvarnished, uncomfortable and plentiful.

“I’m by no means writing one thing that’s deliberately provocative, and I’m definitely by no means writing something for shock worth,” McCurdy stated. “I actually attempt to write for reality, and I can’t assist it if that’s surprising. I can’t assist it if that’s noisy or alarming. In truth, whether it is these issues, that’s most likely a sign that there’s some reality there and a dialog that’s wanted available.”

Once we met for our interview at a Pasadena restaurant in December, McCurdy appeared nearly an identical to after I’d interviewed her there in 2022, earlier than the discharge of her memoir — darkish blond, tousled curls atop a petite body and a broad smile. However a granular shift appears to have occurred. Nervous laughter has been changed by a calmer confidence. Her eyes sparkle a little bit brighter.

The success of McCurdy’s memoir cemented her standing as a author, a title she prized far above “former youngster actor” or “TV star.” Authors she’d lengthy admired, like Maria Semple and Tom Perrotta, now learn and reward her writing. McCurdy even spent Thanksgiving with Semple final 12 months.

“It’s this sense of belonging that I’ve at all times craved and by no means fairly felt,” she stated. “All by way of my 20s I believed, ‘Nicely, I’m simply shedding my tribe. I don’t know the place my persons are.’ I’ve discovered my individuals by way of writing up to now three years.”

It’s been a very long time coming. After transferring away from performing — a profession that had been thrust upon her by her mom at simply 6 years previous — McCurdy started to furiously dedicate herself to writing within the mid-2010s. At first, she immersed herself in quite a lot of lessons round L.A. She tried sketch writing, late-night TV writing, spec writing, however she rapidly discovered she didn’t really need to write sketches or late-night monologues. As an alternative, she began to concentrate on longer-form storytelling by way of essays, her memoir, novels and screenplays.

At the very least six days every week for the final decade, McCurdy stated, she’s spent her waking hours scribbling on a laptop computer inside her Pasadena residence, rotating from her desk to the kitchen counter to the sofa to the eating desk to the veranda and again once more.

“I kind of write till I’m drained. Typically that’s 4 p.m. and typically that’s 8 p.m.,” she stated. “This 12 months, particularly, I’ve pulled the longest days of my life. I had many days that had been till 2 within the morning. It was actually, actually intense.”

“Half His Age” first started percolating when McCurdy was 24, using a bullet prepare on a solo journey in Japan. She’d by no means written a e book at that time, however the thought of a novel with a 17-year-old protagonist concerned in an age-gap relationship cemented itself at the back of her mind. Years later, after the discharge of her memoir, she felt compelled to lastly see it by way of.

“It compelled itself upon me. You already know, when authors say phrases like, ‘There was no different selection than to put in writing this factor,’ I at all times thought it sounded a little bit pretentious,” she stated. “Now, I fully know what it means. Waldo, this protagonist, her voice — I used to be waking up in the course of the evening pondering of this character.”

Though McCurdy stated she considers herself an emotional author, some parts of “Half His Age” required extra exacting analysis. Setting a narrative in a public highschool when she herself had solely been homeschooled and tutored on set, for instance, was a problem.

“I used to be actually trying up, ‘Do they nonetheless have lockers in highschool? What’s a typical structure of a highschool?’” she stated.

Elsewhere, she imbued the story with parts of familiarity: Waldo has related unruly curls to McCurdy’s; Waldo’s greatest buddy is Mormon, the faith during which McCurdy was raised; and Waldo lives in Anchorage, the place McCurdy’s companion of 9 years is from, and the place McCurdy stated she has spent many months.

She additionally gave Waldo a sophisticated, absentee mom determine who leaves Waldo to shoulder the tasks of the family along with her paychecks from a part-time job at a Victoria’s Secret. (On a special scale, McCurdy was the breadwinner for her family by the point she was an adolescent.)

“I believe I’ll at all times write mother-daughter dynamics, and actually any household dynamics, in a sophisticated, messy means. I’ve tried to put in writing different kinds of dynamics, and my physique will freeze up,” she stated. “If I’m attempting to put in writing a loving, supportive, validating, parental determine, that’s not my expertise. I don’t know tips on how to start to put in writing that.”

“I actually attempt to write for reality, and I can’t assist it if that’s surprising. I can’t assist it if that’s noisy or alarming,” stated writer Jennette McCurdy.

(Victoria Stevens)

However past these particulars, McCurdy has a deep connection to the e book’s central storyline: McCurdy’s first critical relationship, which she detailed in her memoir, occurred when she was a naïve 18-year-old with an “iCarly” crew member who was in his mid-30s.

“There’s definitely overlap,” she stated. “There’s definitely affect there. Writing, for me, is a method of discovering closure the place perhaps there wasn’t in my very own life. It’s a method of discovering which means and empowerment in locations the place perhaps I didn’t really feel it a lot. It’s a means of exploring issues that I perhaps haven’t totally processed myself.”

She added, “I saved pondering, ‘Why is that this coming by way of? Why is that this the e book that I’m writing?’ A number of drafts in, I noticed, ‘Oh, it’s as a result of I’ve loads of unprocessed rage about this.’ In fact, it’s a bit of fiction, and there are many deviations, however, finally, I’ve a very private connection to it, coming from that place myself.”

Rage is one thing she expects many feminine readers to really feel as they observe Waldo’s journey in “Half His Age.”

“We’re taught to be well mannered and good and make all people round us really feel snug and take the excessive street,” McCurdy stated, her voice catching. “My expertise of rage is that the extra I’ve linked with it, the extra it has led me on an efficient life path, the extra it has led me to make selections that I had been needing to make for a very long time.”

These selections have resulted in McCurdy not solely turning into a outstanding writer, however an individual totally in command of their profession for the primary time. She is presently engaged on her subsequent e book, and she or he has already written a script for a movie adaptation of “Half His Age,” which she will even direct “if all of the items fall into place,” she stated.

The upcoming sequence adaptation of “I’m Glad My Mother Died” was equally one thing McCurdy was solely snug with if she may keep on the helm. She and Ari Katcher will function co-showrunners. She wrote all 10 episodes, she stated, and can direct a number of episodes, as nicely.

“I’m not concerned with my tales being taken into someone else’s palms,” she stated. “That will be offensive to me.”

McCurdy is not going to seem on display screen, nonetheless, and she or he stated it’s too early to debate who will play youthful variations of herself. In the meantime, Aniston’s connection to the fabric — the veteran actress has stated that she and McCurdy “had very related mothers” — was key to casting her within the matriarch position.

“She does relate so much to the fabric,” McCurdy stated of Aniston. “It could be a disservice to the center and soul of this e book, and a disservice to the deep connection thousands and thousands of individuals have with it, for anyone to be part of it for every other cause. I’m deeply protecting of it.”

As we completed up our mid-afternoon meal — a hodgepodge of spicy tuna bites and asparagus fries paired with guava and berry mocktails — McCurdy mirrored on the company she is lastly in a position to take.

“I didn’t really feel that I had a voice with, actually, any facet of my life rising up. I felt form of unvoiced,” she stated. “Writing was the place I discovered my voice, and I believe, on account of that, discovered my energy.”

Spencer is an L.A.-based tradition author and reporter. Her nonfiction e book, “Disney Excessive: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire,” is out now.