Miley Cyrus once talked about the dark side of Hannah Montana fame (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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Miley Cyrus gained widespread fame for her iconic role of Hannah Montana in 2006. The Disney show which ran for four seasons became a cultural phenomenon and made Cyrus a household name. Because of playing the character in nearly 100 episodes, it wasn’t easy for Cyrus to detach from her character and move on to the next chapter in her career.
For Cyrus, moving on from her Hannah Montanna character was incredibly challenging as she felt indistinguishable from her single character. After the outside motivation pushed her to explore new paths, she admitted in a throwback interview with Rolling Stone, “I had to evolve because Hannah was larger than life, larger than me. I felt like I was never going to amount to the success of Hannah Montana. That’s how Lil Nas X actually knew of my dad. He grew up watching Hannah Montana and said, ‘I want to do a song with Robby Ray.’”
She continued explaining, “That’s literally what happened. Being a young queer kid’s idol that could turn out to be Lil Nas X and create a whole identity for themselves off being inspired from watching me growing up. Or I hear artists like Troye Sivan say he felt more comfortable with his sexuality when I came out with My Heart Beats for Love.”
Cyrus further expressed that she deeply identified herself with Hannah Montanna’s character and realized that the show wasn’t just about playing a role but rather an extension of her true self. She admitted that when she sees her peers accepting themselves because of what she demonstrated on the show, she acknowledges that she is Hannah Montana. The Flowers singer revealed that her character wasn’t just a fictional persona, but a representation of her own experiences and personality. She said she came to terms with the fact that the line between her real self and the character was almost non-existent.
The singer further shared how she could not disconnect herself from Hannah Montanna’s role, calling it an “identity crisis.” She said, “I (was) a character almost as often as I was myself, and actually the concept of the show is that when you’re this character (and) when you have this alter ego, you’re valuable. And then the concept was that when I looked like myself when I didn’t have the wig on anymore, that no one cared about me. I wasn’t a star anymore. That was drilled into my head like without being Hannah Montana no one cares about you.”
