Hollywood is giving Miley Cyrus her flowers.
On May 22, the Grammy winner and former Disney icon will receive a star on the Walk of Fame. The honor comes a couple months after the “Hannah Montana” 20th anniversary special, in which Cyrus suited up once again as the fictional pop star to perform “The Best of Both Worlds,” “This Is the Life” and “The Climb” — and to reunite with her dad, country music star Billy Ray Cyrus, reflecting on how the Disney Channel show changed her life and catapulted her into one of her generation’s most celebrated artists.
Cyrus posed for the cover of Variety ahead of the Disney+ special and sat down for a wide-ranging interview about re-embracing the show, navigating public scrutiny in her teenage years and whether she’d headline the Super Bowl halftime show (the answer is maybe).
And as with every cover story, there are only so many pages in the magazine — so we kept a few morsels to ourselves. Now, we’ll share them in celebration of her new honor.
Her favorite “Hannah Montana” episode
My favorite episodes are the ones with Dolly [Parton]. That’s how she and I became as close as we are. Another one of my favorite episodes is when I play the evil cousin Luann. As if I needed another character to play! I liked throwing one other girl into the mix — one other persona.
The cover song she wants to tackle next
I want to do “Father Figure” by George Michael. I cannot quit listening to that song, and I think it’d be so cool from a female perspective. What I look for in a great cover song is: One, I want a song I wish I would have written — when I listen to it, I’m jealous because it’s not mine. And two, I always think about what emotion it’s bringing up, and do I want to share that? But it mostly comes from a gnarly sense of jealousy, just a song that I wish was my own.
Adjusting to fame at a young age
Because I grew up around my dad, being on tours and being on sets, it felt really natural to me. I never felt like a fish out of water. People were really shocked about that, like, “When you got to L.A., was your mind blown?” I never like to think I was jaded, but being around show business, I had less of an infatuation with Hollywood. I was less enamored by the whole thing. It kept me more grounded. It wasn’t shocking when the show came out, and my life changed.
Advice for younger Miley (and Hannah)
For Miley, I would say: Be present enough to remember. Sometimes I was moving so fast, and I was always calculating what my next step was, and I wasn’t in the moment. Now, I make such clear decisions on what I’m going to do, and I do so little at a time, so I’m able to be in the moment for each thing. I almost feel like I can record every moment. And I know when a moment’s important, like when I’m standing at the Grammys and I look out and I see Oprah [Winfrey], I press record on my mind: Don’t forget this. This is an important moment. Certain things stick out to me when I was younger, like singing at the White House for the Obama inauguration, for his kids. I see those moments, but so much of it was a blur. So, I would tell Miley to slow down and pay attention.
For Hannah … I mean, Hannah feels like she’s got it all figured out. I would tell her to definitely ditch the Season 1 wig and tell Disney that, you know, you get what you pay for! And then the other thing is, because I was her, I didn’t realize how important and how impactful she actually was. Hannah was like Mickey Mouse in her own way — she made people feel like they got this little piece of magic. I would want Hannah to ground into the Miley Stewart and know that that magic is from deep within. It’s not about the wig and the boots and the music. It’s about who you are underneath all that.
Her star chart
I’m a Sagittarius. My sisters are Capricorns. I love Scorpios, Sagittariuses and Capricorns, that whole trifecta. I’m not super into astrology, but I know, by the book, what that means. I’m kind of a logical wild card, if that makes sense. I like to do something bold but also do my own math about it. I want to know what I want before I make a choice. But anything I say could be out the window tomorrow. I like to be reliably unpredictable.