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Miranda Cosgrove, The Original Influencer

Will the 'iCarly' Reboot Save Us? Quite possibly. We prod Miranda Cosgrove for all of the details ahead of this week's Australian release.

Miranda Cosgrove has always been ahead of her time. From the self-assurance and leadership displayed as a pre-teen in Drake & Josh, to the ambition and unwillingness to compromise as a fourth grader in School Of Rock, Cosgrove’s most memorable performances have been headstrong, confident young girls – something the mainstream wouldn’t portray en masse until at least a decade later.

But perhaps her most iconic role is that of Carly Shay in iCarly. Quirky, fumbling through life and at the helm of a very popular web-series, Cosgrove gave us an insight to the #relatable influencer future we’d be living in today. Given the show’s immense success, and its frighteningly prophetic concept, it comes as no surprise that a reboot was green lit – and is finally coming to Australia!

Yep, the first season of the grown-up iCarly drops via Paramount+, which launches this very week. 

To celebrate its release, here's our interview with the one and only: Miranda Cosgrove.

On iCarly’s burgeoning relevance

Miranda: I think that we had a lot to work with this time around because on the original iCarly, nobody really had web shows. But now, there's an endless amount of creativity online. 

On the reboot’s more adult themes

I just thought it was important to really show the characters ten years later – what they'd really be like now – and touch on a lot of different storylines similar to what I'm going through in real life. 

When I did the original show, I was 13 and a lot of [the show plotlines] like having a first kiss, going on dates, and getting in your first fight with your best friend; those were all things that had happened to me in real life around the same time.

So getting to do things on the show that we would've never been able to do in the original series has been really fun. For instance, [in one episode] Jerry Trainor's character, Spencer, accidentally hires a sex worker for Freddie's character. That would never happen on the original show.

On the show’s influence on… influencers

It makes me feel really good any time people come up to me and say, "oh, I used to watch iCarly and I started my YouTube channel because of the show." I don't know if I feel responsible for all of them, but any time someone says that, it just makes me think, “wow, it inspired people and it got people out there, really [showcasing] their creativity”.

On her favourite celebrity cameo

I really loved the episode with Emma Stone 'cause I'm a huge fan of hers. I just think she's such a great actress. And then also the Jimmy Fallon episode was really, really fun 'cause we got to go to New York. That was the first time we ever travelled somewhere for an episode and we all got to go to New York together. Actually hanging out with Jimmy Fallon was just crazy.

And Michelle Obama. Those were the three craziest.

On potential new celeb cameos

We're about to start the second season very soon, and I'm hoping to get as many of the original recurring characters and people that were on the original series that people loved... so that'll be really fun. 

On psychoanalysing Carly, as a psychology major

She's very nervous about standing on her own two feet. At the start of the season, she doesn't 100% believe in herself a because she's just been through a break-up. She's just scared to do the show without Sam and without her boyfriend.

I've felt like that for sure in my life and I think a lot of people in their twenties do, too. It's like, you're still finding yourself and you want to do great things, but at times you're not 100% sure that you can.

On her favourite BTS story

Two months ago, we went to the Kids' Choice Awards for the first time in a really long time to announce the reboot. Jerry [Trainor] said that he wanted to get a spray tan beforehand, because I've had them before. He thought they looked nice and he wanted to look really good.

[After we both got spray tans], he fell asleep that night and didn't wash it off. The next morning, I kept calling him and he wasn't picking up and I was like, "What's going on with him?" And then when we got to the Kids' Choice Awards... I have never seen a more tan person in my life. It was just crazy. 

I send [the photos] to him all the time; just to torture him. I won't let him live it down. 

On new music plans

We thought about recording a new theme song for the show, but in the end we kept the original theme song. I thought that people would be sad if we didn't.

I'm always playing songs on my guitar and I love to sing. I'd like to try to do music again some day, but for now I'm focusing on the next season of the show and want it to be as good as it can be.

The above conversation took place as part of a roundtable interview with MTV Australia editor Alice Griffin. It has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

Watch the iCarly reboot on Australia's shiny new streaming service, Paramount+, available for $8.99 a month. Sign up here for a free seven-day trial

Editor’s note: Paramount+ and MTV are both subsidiaries of ViacomCBS.

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