Month: January 2011

An Interview with Miranda Cosgrove

Miranda Cosgrove, the star of iCarly and definitely one of our favorite people (as an actress, a singer and just a great girl!), is coming to Pittsburgh on Wednesday, February 2nd to sing at the Carnegie Library Music Hall of Homestead — and we got to interview her for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette!  Here’s a link to the Post-Gazette story, which appeared in the Post-Gazette’s “My Generation” column today:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11026/1120533-67.stm

The Post-Gazette story was really great, with three columns and a big picture of Miranda smiling with her arms in the air, dancing.  But even though the Post-Gazette included most of the actual interview, there were still some questions that didn’t make it into the P-G version due to space.  So, as a special treat to the readers of www.kidsbeststuff.com — here is the entire interview — with questions about Jerry Trainor, Drake and Josh, her favorite pets, her best friend, being an only child, and more!

Miranda Cosgrove, the 17-year old star of the popular
Nickelodeon TV show “iCarly,” will be in Pittsburgh
on Wednesday, February 2nd to perform selections from her album
“Sparks Fly” and to share her new single, “Dancing Crazy” at the Carnegie Library
Music Hall of Homestead.  Tickets are
available through the Music Hall box office at (412) 368-5225 and by visiting  www.librarymusichall.com.

 Q. How did you get started in show business?

 A. I live in LA, and when I was three I went to a food
festival with my parents, and an agent was there and she asked my parents if I
wanted to join her agency.  And my
parents were not sure about it at all, and they thought about it a little
while, and I ended going on a couple of auditions and I liked it.

 Q.  Are you anything
like your character in iCarly?

 A. Yeah, I think I’m a lot like Carly.  I don’t go quite as crazy as she does –
sometimes, when things go wrong, she really goes overboard.  Especially like an episode when I end up on
the side of a building on the scaffolding and all that stuff – that usually
doesn’t happen to me (laughs).  But I am
like her because I’m always with my friends and I love making videos and stuff
for the web, and I have a You Tube page.

 Q.  What’s your
favorite episode of iCarly?

A.  My favorite
episode?  I like the episode “I Saved
Your Life” where Freddy saved Carly’s life and she decides she likes him.  And then I really like an episode that we did
that’s coming up called “I Hire An Idiot” and that night Sam and Carly decide
to hire this really cute guy to work for the show and Freddy’s really annoyed
by it.

 Q.  What is it like
kissing Freddy in the “I Saved Your Life” episode?

 A. It was a little strange because I’ve known him since we
were both 13 and we were like 16 I think in that episode and – I don’t know, I
just feel like I’ve known him for such a long time and he’s like my brother
because I’m with him everyday.  So, it
was a little funny.  It’s also funny
because Jeannette who plays Sam has to kiss him too in an episode.  And we’re all like really good friends at the
show.  We were all like laughing during
those episodes and stuff – it was a little awkward.

 Q.  How do you manage
school and work?

 A. That’s probably the hardest thing about acting or doing
music just because I still have to do school and study.  Basically, I have a tutor that comes with me
every day to the set or wherever I’m going. 
She’s going to come on tour with me – I do all of my schoolwork with
her.

Q.  Are you good at
school?  What’s your favorite subject?

 A.  Um, my least
favorite subject is math (laughs).  But
I’m pretty good in school.  I really like
English – that’s my favorite subject.  I
love writing, I love creative things.

 Q.  Do you plan to go
to college? If so, where?

 A. Yeah, I do.  I just
sent in all my college applications.  I
applied to six schools, but the two main schools I’d really love to go to are
USC (University of Southern California) or NYU (New York University.)

 Q.  Do you see
yourself as a role model for other kids?

 A.  I don’t know if I
see myself as a role model, but sometimes parents will say that to me and I
think that’s really nice, but it’s kind of shocking to me.  I don’t know – I think I just try to make the
right decisions.

 Q.  Do you have a
boyfriend?  If so, how do you keep your
life private?

 A.  I do not have a
boyfriend, but I want a boyfriend, so tell me if you know anyone! (laughs)  I don’t know how I keep my life private.  I think I’m lucky because I live a little out
of LA.  I mean, sometimes I’ll go to
places where there are paparazzi, but for the most part, where I live, I’m by
the beach, and I have my group of friends that I’ve always had, so that helps a
lot.

 Q.  You released a new
single, “Dancing Crazy.”  Are you also
releasing a new album this year?

 A. Yeah, I have a new EP coming out really soon and that’s
going to be in stores and on iTunes — that has six new songs.

 Q.  I loved your album
“Sparks Fly.”  What’s your favorite song
on that album?

 A.  My favorite song –
I like “There Will Be Tears” because it’s a good girl power song, and to sing
to a guy “I’m not going to cry about it.” 
And then I like “Kissing U” because I wrote that about a guy I really do
like.

 Q.  Do you help to
write the songs that you sing?

 A.  I write some of
them and then some of them I co-write, and then some of them I just hear
because somebody sends it to me or a friend of mine writes it and I really end
up liking it.  So I’m kind of all over
the place.

 Q.  How is singing
different from acting for you?  Which do
you like better?

 A. I think they’re really different.  With acting, I’ve been doing it longer.  I mean, I’ve been singing since I was little
but I had never been on stage and actually performed.  So with acting I feel more comfortable I
think, but I like the feeling of getting a little nervous before shows and
before going on stage.  And also, with
acting you’re playing a character, and with singing, you’re yourself, so I like
that about acting.

 Q.  Would you like to
be a movie actress?  Are there any plans
to make an iCarly movie?

 A.  You know, we’ve
talked about making an iCarly movie that would be in theaters and, I don’t
know, maybe for the show’s finale we could end up doing that — I think it
would be really fun.

 Q.  Do you have any
pets?

 A.  I do.  I have my dog – she’s here with me right now
– her name is Pearl,
she’s a poodle, and then I have a cat. 
What about you?  Do you have pets?

 Q.  Yeah, her name is
Snowball, and she’s small and white and she’s really fluffy and she loves to
play with me.

 A.  Oh, how cute!  I love dogs, they’re my favorite animals.

 Q.  Who inspires
you?  Is there anything you’d like to
tell other kids to inspire them?

 A.  Who inspires
me?  Well, as far as acting and singing,
I really love Kate Winslett and I love Gwen Stefani.  Um, and then, probably my mom.  I would love to inspire people, I think
that’s really an honor, that would be great. 
I met Gwen Stefani once, and I literally couldn’t speak.  I think she’s amazing.

 Q.  How do your
parents feel about you acting?

 A.  I think at first
my parents didn’t really want me to do it. 
My mother actually had a friend whose daughter had gone on some
auditions, and we made friends.  I was so
little but I started going on auditions, and I don’t think my parents would do
it more than once or twice, but I just kept going and going, and then everything
just started to happen.   So, I don’t
know, I think they’re still kind of shocked by the whole thing, but they’re
definitely supportive.

 Q.  Do you have any
brothers or sisters?

 A.  I don’t – I’m an
only child – I always thought my dog was like my sister.  It can get a little boring – my next door
neighbor is my age, so we hang out together.

 Q.  Who is your best
friend?

 A.  My best friend is
my next door neighbor.  Her name is Nina,
and she’s lived next door to me since I was five.  And I don’t know – we just do everything
together.

 Q.  Does Nina come to
your shows?

 A.  Yeah.  She’s been on the iCarly set a lot, and
because I’m going on tour and I’m going to be away for about a month or so,
she’s going to come on the bus for a week of it, and then she’s going to be at
all the LA shows.

 Q.  Did you make any
new friends with the iCarly characters or guest stars?

 A.  Yeah, I feel like
it’s sort of like high school.  People
always say “Are you bummed that you didn’t get to go to high school,” but it’s
kind of like that.  I mean, we have cute
guys on the show sometimes, and all the girls on the show whisper about
them.  And I meet people all the time
that I end up being friends with, that are on the show for an episode.  So it’s pretty cool.

 Q.  You and Neville on
iCarly are enemies, but are you friends in real life.

 A. (Laughs) Yeah, in real life, he’s pretty much a
genius.  He writes novels and he’s like
his character if his character wasn’t evil.

 Q.  Are you glad
you’re acting?

 A.  Yeah, I am.  I think if I were in school with my friends,
I’d probably be wishing that I was acting. 
It’s kind of funny though, because I fell into it – so I’m not sure if I
would have ended up doing it if that hadn’t happened – but I really love it.

 Q.  Do you like Jerry
Trainor as your brother?

 A.  Yeah, I feel like
he is my brother a little in real life, ‘cause if I ever have a problem, I
would call him.  I’m a big night owl and
I stay up really late, so I always text him when I’m at home watching movies
and stuff.  And he’s always telling me
about good music.  He’s just really,
really fun.  And he taught me how to
drive!

 Q.  Is it the same
with Drake Bell, in Drake and Josh?

 A.  Yeah, well, I
actually just saw Drake because he’s going to come to some of my shows on tour,
because I’m going to be playing the iCarly theme song.  He’s going to be coming up on stage and
playing with me.  It was really fun to
see him, because I hadn’t seen him in maybe six months or so and I miss him.

 Q.  Do you play any
instruments?

 A.  I do – I play
guitar.  I started playing guitar when I
was eight, and then I stopped for a year, and then I started again.

 Q.  What songs are you
going to be singing at the concert?

 A.  We’re going to be
doing about fourteen songs.  We’re going
to do my new single, “Dancing Crazy,” and we’re going the iCarly theme song,
and all the songs off of my “Sparks Fly” album and a couple of new songs.

 Q.  Thanks for doing
this interview.  Do you often get
interviewed by kids?

A.  No, I think that’s
so cool.  I think you’re a great
interviewer, by the way.  I really hope
that you can come to the show and I’ll get to meet you – that would be
great!  I’ve never been to Pittsburgh, so I’m really
looking forward to it!