When the Victorious cast headed to London, we couldn’t wait to sit them down for a chat. Victoria Justice (Tori), Ariana Grande (Cat), Leon Thomas III (Andre), Elizabeth Gillies (Jade), Avan Jogia (Beck), Daniella Monet (Trina) and Matt Bennett (Robbie) talk to First News.

What’s the best thing about being the characters you play on Victorious?

Ariana:  If I were a little girl I would love to watch Cat! I would love to be like her, because she’s silly and she’s fun and she doesn’t judge anyone. Yes, she’s not the brightest bulb of the bunch, but she has a great energy and represents only love. I love her. 

Avan: I really like Beck. He’s calm, collected and cool. I don’t think I’m as calm as he is. He’s always the voice of reason. It’s fun to play that.

Daniella: I like how broad my character is. She’s got a lot of energy and puts a lot of energy into her passions. The one thing I’m not too keen on is the way Trina treats her sister. She’s harmless, she’s just a diva!

Leon: Andre is a really good friend. You very rarely get to play someone as nice as him. He’s so cool and down-to-earth.

Elizabeth: The characters never get boring; they’re so fun.  We never get a script where we’re bored. Even if we’re not in an episode a lot, we’re always doing something wild and weird. And you know, with Jade, playing the bad girl is so much fun. I love stirring up trouble.

What’s the best thing about being part of the show?

Victoria: The best part would have to be the people that I work with. We have so much fun together and it’s always like a big party on set.

Leon: It’s so nice to be in the presence of people who are nice, talented and laid-back. They’re some of my best friends. It’s so nice being able to just hang out as a cast… even after filming!

Daniella: Yeah, we all have such a good vibe together. We all enjoy hanging out and making the show.

It almost looks too much fun! Do you play pranks on each other off-set?

Matt: We don’t really pull a lot of pranks – we just try to crack each other up a lot.  We work long hours, so we need that morale boost sometimes! We like to have fun on set, though.

How do you prepare for an average episode of Victorious?

Victoria: We usually get the script over the weekend, or the day of rehearsals, so we rehearse from Monday or Tuesday, where we go through every scene. Then we do these things called run-throughs, which is kind of like putting on a play of the entire episode in front of all the writers and some people from Nickelodeon. Then on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we usually film. It’s a lot of work and sometimes we film for very long hours. But you know, I’m doing what I love and it never really feels like a job!

What are Victorious fans like?

Avan: They’re very sweet. The great thing
about this show is that the kids who like this show are kids who like to sing and dance,
so they come up to us and always have interesting questions. They ask us things like how we got started and how we did it.

Ariana: The fans are great, they’re die-hard! The people that watch the show are all very nice, which is great.

Do you know of any celebrity fans of Victorious that might surprise us?

Victoria: I heard that Stephen Tyler from American Idol is a fan, which is really cool! Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters as well, his kids are big fans. He came up to me at the MTV Video Music Awards and said: “We have to get a picture together!”

Victorious recently crossed over with iCarly for a special episode. Which other show would you love to do a one-off special with?

Ariana: SpongeBob would be a dream. What if Patrick and Cat hung out?! Can you imagine if Cat and SpongeBob dated? Cat would date SpongeBob… I know it.

Leon: That would be cool!

Victoria: To see myself in cartoon form would be crazy. That would be really cool – I’m so up for it!

Watch brand new Victorious on Monday 20 and Friday 24 February at 6pm on Nickelodeon.