Miranda Cosgrove wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty for The Wrong Paris, the new Netflix romantic comedy that began streaming today.

“There’s not anything quite like wrestling with someone in mud in the rain,” Cosgrove said in a recent Zoom interview with DECIDER, referring to scene in the movie where she wrestles with co-star Madison Pettis in a mud pit. “I’ve never done anything like that before. I feel like we’ll always be friends because of it.”

Directed by Janeen Damian, with a screenplay written by Nicole Henrich, The Wrong Paris stars Cosgrove as Dawn, who dreams of attending art school in Paris. But even though she was accepted, she can’t afford the flight and tuition. Her sister offers a solution: Audition for The Bachelor-esque show, The Honey Pot, which films in Paris and offers a generous appearance fee to contestants. Free flight to Paris, plus money for tuition! When it turns out the show is filming in Paris, Texas instead of Paris, France, Dawn is more than a little upset. But she can’t back out without losing her appearance fee. Plus, this season’s Honey, Trey McAllen (played by Pierson Fodé), is actually pretty cute.

Cosgrove’s been acting since she was 10 years old, making her debut in School of Rock, and then quickly becoming a Nickelodeon child star on shows like Drake & Josh and iCarly. That’s another reason she felt instantly connected to Pettis, who is best known as a child star from the Disney Channel series Corey in the House.

“We were both child actors, and that’s a very specific kind of experience,” Cosgrove explained. The now 32-year-old star spoke to Decider about working with Pettis on The Wrong Paris, learning some country girl skills, and the upcoming iCarly reboot film.

DECIDER: You’re not just the star of this film, you’re also an executive producer. Tell me about stepping into that producer role and what that looked like for you?

MIRANDA COSGROVE: It was really awesome to get to be a part of it in that way. When I first read the script, one of the things that I loved about it was all the female characters, that are the contestants. One of the things that I really pulled for was having a couple more characters, with bigger roles, that were the contestants. That was probably the biggest thing I pushed for.

Which characters did you push for specifically?

One of my close friends in real life, Hannah Stocking, she plays Eve in the movie, and that character came from that. But also, Hannah brought so much to that character and really brought it to life—brought so much more to it. But I was just excited to get to  work with all these different, awesome, talented women. They all bring so much to each of their parts. I feel like it really elevated the whole movie, having having them.

I loved seeing you working with Madison Pettis on this movie. She was coming up as a Disney star around the same time you were a Nickelodeon star. Is there any playful rivalry there?

I wouldn’t say a rivalry, but I would say we bonded right away because we have a lot of similar experiences. We were both child actors, and that’s a very specific kind of experience. So I just love her. I think she’s awesome. I know in the movie we hate each other, but in real life we could have gotten along better. Getting to do the mud pit scene with her—I always tell her, we’re bonded for life from that,because it rained really hard the day we were filming it. There’s not anything quite like wrestling with someone in mud in the rain. I’ve never done anything like that before. I feel like we’ll always be friends because of it.

What else do you remember from filming that day? That scene was hilarious.

It was crazy because I had a really bad cold when we filmed it, and it just happened to rain really hard that day. But you can’t even tell it’s raining in the movie. We just went for it, and we had a really good time. It was honestly one of the most fun scenes in the end. I love going crazy. We practiced a lot beforehand, and had a little bit of choreography for it. So we had an idea of what it was going to be, but we also got to improvise during it too, and we did it a lot.

Speaking of the rain, what was it like filming in Vancouver in the fall to double as a hot Texas summer?

We had some really nice sunny days, but there were definitely a lot of rainy days too. It was my first time really experiencing Vancouver. It’s beautiful there though. We filmed it a lot of ranches, so that was really fun. I love the feeling of being on a ranch, because I’m from the city, I’m from LA, and it was a totally different pace and vibe on a ranch. I really liked it. Like, I could see myself living on a ranch some day because of it.

My colleague actually spoke to Madison earlier this month, Madison mentioned that she couldn’t stop quoting Drake and Josh on set. Were you aware of this happening?

That’s so funny. She did tell me that she liked Drake and Josh, and it’s so funny because when I was little, I used to watch her and a bunch of the stuff she was in, even though we never really crossed paths. To actually get to meet her—I’ve always loved her, I think she’s a great actress. It was really cool to get to work with her.

You have some impressive skills that you put on display in this film, including welding, lassoing, and bull riding. Are those all things you learned for this role?

I took a welding class for six hours one day. It’s funny, because I don’t weld very much in the movie, but I’m so happy I did it, because it’s a new skill and I ended up really enjoying it. It was funny though, because it was a group class and there were like five other 50-year-old men that were really like learning to weld and going to get their license… and then me. So it was kind of dorky of me. But I had a really good time and it was a really cool skill to learn. I also got to learn how to lasso, which is really fun. And how to ride a mechanical bull. It’s way harder than I ever realized! I mean, I knew it was going to be hard, but when I first started practicing, I could barely stand for four seconds. I definitely built up to figuring out—you have build your leg strength and your core strength. It’s a whole thing. It was really fun, though. I got to do so many different things.

Talk to me about casting and working with Pierson Fodé in this film, whose first ever acting job was a small role on iCarly?

Yeah, it’s so crazy. When he first came to L.A. to act—I think he was like 14 or 15—[iCarly] was the first part that he booked. The scene is literally just me and him together. It was on a Halloween episode of iCarly. That was the first time we ever met. It was pretty quick, even though, we got along really well and I remember working with him, but it was pretty quick. This is the first time we’ve met up again and talked since. It just felt like a full circle moment. It’s kind of crazy thinking we acted as kids together, and now we get to be in this movie opposite each other. I couldn’t ask for a better person to make this movie with. He’s so easygoing and fun, and he grew up on a ranch in real life, so he helped me a lot. He helped me with horseback riding and making sure the lassoing looked good, and all that stuff. He was just so behind me the whole time, and it was so nice to have someone like that.

You both do a bit of a Texas accent in this movie! How did you find that, did you work with a dialect coach?

It’s so funny because I’m really not doing much of an accent! One of my friends watched it the other day, because I had it and I was able to show it to her, and she’s like, “You’re doing a country accent!” I was like, “Am I?” I didn’t really. The only thing I would say is—I always put really hard “-ings” on the end of stuff, like “jumping.” I tried to make it “jumpin’” or take some of that, make it a little less intense. I speak very… I don’t know, LA, I guess. I didn’t really try to do much of an accent, but I feel like Pierson does for sure. And he did a really good job.

I love seeing you as a rom-com lead. Would you like to do more romance like this, or is there a genre that you would like to try that you haven’t gotten to do yet?

I love rom-coms. It really is genuinely my favorite genre, so to get to be a part of one in this way for the first time, I was really excited. I’d love to maybe do another rom-com in the future, because I had so much fun doing this. Or maybe a horror movie. I love horror and thrillers, so that would be interesting.

You were just in another Netflix movie, Mother of the Bride. What keeps you coming back to Netflix, and do you see more Netflix films in your future?

I hope so. I really like working with Netflix. Everybody’s so nice, especially in the rom-com department. All the people that I know—they’re so collaborative and they made the experience so fun. I’d love to continue to work with them.

Fans are so excited about this upcoming iCarly movie that you teased a couple weeks ago. Where are you guys at in the process, do you know when filming might start?

Hopefully, I think we’re going to be filming it early next year. So it’s exciting. I just got to read the first part of the script, and that was really cool. Fingers crossed that it all works out, because I just love Jerry [Trainor] and Nathan [Kress]. They’re two people I’ve been friends with the longest, and they’re kind of like my brothers. I really love them. I would love to get to work with them again and wrap the story up.