Victoria Justice says Dan Schneider owes her an apology: 'My relationship with Dan is very complex'

Victoria Justice has broken her silence on Dan Schneider.

In a new interview with Marie Claire, the former Nickelodeon star discussed her relationship with the controversial producer, with whom she worked on Victorious and Zoey 101. "At the end of the day, my relationship with Dan is a very complex one: I met him when I was 12 years old, and he's the person that gave me this big break,” she said. “He completely changed my life. Most likely I wouldn't be here where I am today if it weren't for him, and for him seeing something in me. For that I will always be grateful.”

A representative for Schneider did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly’s request for comment.

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Schneider was the primary subject of the Investigation Discovery series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which featured former Nickelodeon stars making allegations that the producer created a toxic work environment on shows like All That and The Amanda Show. Shortly after the series concluded, Schneider released a video responding to the documentary, apologizing for some of his behavior. 

“After watching his apology, I think he recognizes that he did a lot of things wrong, and I think if he could step back into a time machine, he would do a lot of things differently,” Justice said in the interview. She also said that she has not been in contact with Schneider since the end of Victorious in 2013, aside from a handful of virtual and in-person cast reunions for her two Nickelodeon shows.

Schneider filed a lawsuit against the Quiet on Set producers earlier this month, claiming that the documentary defamed him by implicitly suggesting he was sexually abusive toward children. No former Nickelodeon employees have accused Schneider of sexual abuse or harassment of underage children; however, former All That performer Lori Beth Denberg accused Schneider of showing her pornography when she was 19, fondling her breasts when she was 20 or 21, and initiating phone sex at one point. Schneider denied these allegations.

Justice reiterated that her relationship with Schneider never came close to being sexual, though she admitted that she thinks some of the more sexually-charged moments from Schneider’s shows highlighted in the documentary "were in poor taste.” When Marie Claire asked Justice if she saw Schneider’s response video in which he says he owes some former employees apologies, she responded, "I would say I'm definitely one of the people on that list.”

"Something that was very evident in the documentary is that Dan had a very large ego, and sometimes that ego clouded his better judgment and affected the way he treated people, and there were times I felt like I was being treated unfairly,” Justice said. "I'm not condoning any of his behavior.”