Jennifer Aniston will star in series inspired by Jennette McCurdy’s memoir ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’
By ITZEL LUNA
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jennette McCurdy’s widely acclaimed memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died” will be adapted into a series on Apple TV+, with Jennifer Aniston to star in a role modeled after McCurdy’s mother.
The 10-episode dramedy was written by McCurdy and film producer Ari Katcher. The pair will serve as co-showrunners and will executive produce the series alongside Aniston, Apple announced Tuesday.
McCurdy started acting at age 8 and rose to fame as a co-star on Nickelodeon show “iCarly” with Miranda Cosgrove, later reprising her role as Sam in the spinoff “Sam & Cat ”opposite Ariana Grande. Her memoir recounts being “emotionally, mentally and physically abused” by her mother throughout her childhood.
The show will center around the “codependent relationship” between a young female actor in a popular kid’s show and her “narcissistic mother,” according to the statement. No casting has been announced for the child star, who is described by Apple as being 18.
McCurdy’s bestselling book released in August 2022, following years of therapy the actor said was vital in allowing her to fully deal with her mother’s death due to cancer complications in 2013.
The title is attention-grabbing and, she said, entirely true.
“With my mother’s death, I’d go from being so, so deeply angry to then feeling just so sorry for her. And so I could feel compassion and sympathy and then just anger and rage,” McCurdy told The Associated Press in 2022. “I’d cry because I missed her and I’d be angry that I was crying that I missed her and feel she doesn’t deserve these tears. I think abusive love is so complicated … It’s going to be mixed and messy.”
McCurdy’s book detailed the difficulties in handling her fame while simultaneously navigating her mother’s illness.
“As agonizing as it is to be in the ambulance with my mother while she’s convulsing in the middle of a seizure, to look up and see my face (on a billboard) felt like my life was mocking me,” McCurdy told the AP.
Aniston’s casting follows her collaboration with Apple TV+ on “The Morning Show,” which she also stars in and executive produces. The show’s fourth season is set to premiere Sept. 17.
