Bongs, obscene birthday cakes, and an unforgettable VMA performance. Miley Cyrus may have been acting since before she was old enough to drive, but there's a reason you don't see her in movies anymore.
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00:00Bongs, obscene birthday cakes, and an unforgettable VMA performance.
00:05Miley Cyrus may have been acting since before she was old enough to drive, but there's a
00:09reason you don't see her in movies anymore.
00:12When Miley Cyrus was young, being a pop star wasn't on her radar.
00:15She grew up surrounded by country music.
00:17Her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, released his billboard hit, Achy, Breaky Heart, the same
00:22year she was born, while the iconic Dolly Parton was her godmother.
00:25Even Miley's birth name, Destiny, was given by her parents in the hopes it would foreshadow
00:29her rise to stardom.
00:30Despite all this, Miley found a different path for herself at a young age.
00:34After accompanying her father to a 2001 production of Mamma Mia! in Toronto, a wide-eyed Miley
00:39quickly realized she had found her calling.
00:41According to the Toronto Star, she told her dad partway through the first act,
00:45"'This is what I want to do, Daddy.
00:46I want to be an actress.'"
00:48It wasn't long before it seemed like everybody on the planet knew who Miley Cyrus was, thanks
00:53to Hannah Montana.
00:54The show was a ratings hit for the Disney Channel, prompting Cyrus to hit the road on
00:57tour as the character, with the first season's soundtrack even charting on the Billboard
01:01200.
01:02If it seems like everything was overwhelming for Cyrus at this time, that's probably because
01:06it was.
01:07As she would later reveal,
01:08In a 2017 interview with Harper's Bazaar, Cyrus reflected on this breakthrough moment.
01:13She told the outlet,
01:14"'There's so much I don't remember about being a child entertainer because it was so much
01:17to keep in my brain.
01:18I didn't realize how much pressure I was under and how that shaped me until, like, this year.'"
01:23"'It was actually kind of crazy being Hannah Montana.'"
01:26Cyrus always had her eye on what her career post-Hannah Montana would look like.
01:29In an interview with Cineplex in 2009, she expressed an interest in expanding her acting
01:34abilities, saying,
01:35"'I would love to do an indie film, something a little bit darker, maybe an action movie.
01:39That's not really my thing.
01:40I don't even watch action movies, but I'd like to do it because it seems like a challenge.'"
01:44The opportunity finally came for Cyrus in the form of The Last Song, a 2010 drama based
01:49on a Nicholas Sparks novel.
01:51Although the role was written with Cyrus in mind, Sparks had reservations about the actor's
01:55ability to play a troubled girl reconnecting with her father and experiencing love for
01:59the first time.
02:00He was quick to change his mind, however, after seeing Cyrus perform on set.
02:04Although The Last Song was Cyrus' first serious role, she had plans to do more.
02:08Despite working at the time on her third album, Can't Be Tamed, she became particularly disillusioned
02:13with the many changes happening in the music industry compared to what she had grown up
02:17with in Nashville.
02:18That said, Cyrus wanted to focus on building her career as an actor.
02:22Cyrus had learned well from her Disney Channel character that it can be tricky to live between
02:26two worlds.
02:27The ending of Hannah Montana left her with two different career paths to go down, one
02:30as a successful pop star and the other as a serious actor.
02:34Despite having dreams of being an actor, Cyrus wasn't exactly sure where she would fit in
02:38the entertainment industry, telling The Telegraph,
02:40"...I'm kind of bipolar in my acting choices because I just want to do a little bit of
02:44everything."
02:45One thing she did make a firm decision on as a teenager was her choice to not attend
02:49college.
02:50Cyrus felt that she was under no pressure to finish her education while she was young,
02:53and even cited her grandmother as an example of someone who went back to college in her
02:5760s.
02:58Even her entry in Time's 2008 list of the world's 100 most influential people, written
03:03by Donny Osmond, trod the line between admiration for the young star and fear about what her
03:07future looked like.
03:08In the piece, Osmond pointed out that, eventually, the child icon was going to grow up, whether
03:13her fans liked it or not.
03:15The early 2010s saw a lot of controversy surrounding Cyrus.
03:18While her risque photo shoot for Vanity Fair caused an uproar among her fans' parents,
03:23Cyrus scoffed at accusations of growing up too quickly.
03:26The scandalous behavior caught up to Cyrus, however, culminating in an explosion of media
03:31outrage after she was caught on tape smoking a bong.
03:34Cyrus expressed remorse for this portrayal of her public image, telling Marie Claire,
03:38"...So for me it was a bad decision, because of my fans and because of what I stand for."
03:42Cyrus still had a sense of humor about her own controversies, which extended to her first
03:46Saturday Night Live monologue, where she fake-apologized for her public transgressions.
03:50"...And, you know, that may upset some people, and for that, I'm truly sorry."
03:56Not everyone in the entertainment industry was accepting of Cyrus' adult behavior.
04:00The actor was slated to have a voice role in Hotel Transylvania before she was fired
04:04for posing with an obscene birthday cake.
04:07Fortunately, she wouldn't have to worry for too long about maintaining a good relationship
04:10with Hollywood, given how her music career was about to reach new heights.
04:142013 was a big year for Cyrus, as her music career went from purely successful to completely
04:20inescapable.
04:21Her song, Wrecking Ball, was a number one hit.
04:23The accompanying album, Bangers, also went to number one on the Billboard 200, and Cyrus
04:28was named Artist of the Year by MTV.
04:30Still, controversy continued to follow Cyrus.
04:33"...So at the time when I made Wrecking Ball, I was expecting for there to be controversy
04:37and backlash."
04:38Her infamous performance with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV VMAs came as a shock to many
04:43former fans of the Disney Channel star.
04:46Ultimately, the biggest difference between this smiley and her Hannah Montana counterpart
04:50was maturity.
04:51Alongside the public scandals came Cyrus speaking out about political issues like LGBTQ rights
04:56and racial discrimination.
04:58Sadly, acting was put on the back burner, with Cyrus telling Vogue Germany,
05:02"...I'm just not passionate about acting because I don't like to pretend to be somebody I'm
05:06actually not.
05:07I prefer to show my true colors as the real Miley Cyrus."
05:10While Cyrus was becoming synonymous with public controversy, not everybody in Hollywood would
05:15turn their backs on her.
05:16She still made rare cameos in both film and TV, including The Night Before and Two and
05:20a Half Men.
05:21She hadn't taken on a major film role since 2012, however, when she starred in the rom-com
05:25LOL and the crime comedy So Undercover.
05:28James Gunn was one of the few who sought out Cyrus for a cameo in a mid-credits scene for
05:32Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
05:34In the scene, Cyrus played a disembodied robotic head called Mainframe.
05:38Gunn told BuzzFeed News he was interested in casting Cyrus after seeing her as a guest
05:42judge on The Voice, saying,
05:44"...I find her funny and likable and sweet.
05:46So we contacted her, and she said yes.
05:48She came in and recorded, and she was a delight to work with."
05:51Miley Cyrus' music career waned in the years after Bangers, with albums like Miley Cyrus
05:56and Her Dead Pets and Younger Now receiving less critical acclaim and attention.
06:00Then in 2019, Cyrus returned to TV for her first leading role in years.
06:05As part of the fifth season of Netflix's anthology series Black Mirror, Cyrus starred in Rachel,
06:10Jack, and Ashley 2, playing Ashley O, a pop singer struggling with the direction of her
06:14career as her image is recreated in the form of an A.I. doll.
06:17Let's give it up for Ashley Eternal!
06:22The producers of Black Mirror had no expectation that Cyrus would take the role.
06:26When she agreed to take it, however, Cyrus was highly influential in shaping the look
06:30of Ashley O. She even co-wrote the character's song on her role.
06:34Black Mirror seemed to promise that there was more acting in the near future for Cyrus,
06:37but the opposite turned out to be true.
06:39Her 2020 album Plastic Hearts was seen as her career comeback, as her style evolved
06:43with 80s-tinged rock and new wave sounds.
06:46Cyrus took this new music on the road as the pandemic restrictions eased up, appearing
06:50at festivals like Lollapalooza and even hosted a New Year's celebration on NBC in 2021 and
06:562022.
06:57The best was still yet to come, however.
06:59In 2023, Cyrus released her single, Flowers, which not only debuted at number one on the
07:03Billboard Hot 100, but stayed there for a total of eight weeks.
07:07The corresponding album, Endless Summer Vacation, was met with the most acclaim of Cyrus' career.
07:12With her most successful album yet, and even after giving up touring for this record, Cyrus
07:16opened 2024 by winning two Grammy Awards for Flowers.
07:202024 featured Cyrus' first on-screen theatrical appearance since the night before, in 2015.
07:26Unfortunately, it was yet another cameo, but it wasn't one of the best comedy movies
07:30of the year.
07:31The film Driveaway Dolls, directed by Ethan Coen, stars Margaret Qualley and Joaldine
07:35Viswanathan as two lesbian best friends on a road trip that gets derailed by a major
07:40political conspiracy involving customized sex toys.
07:44Cyrus appears in several sequences as the mysterious hippie Tiffany Plasticaster.
07:49The character is based on the real-life Cynthia Plasticaster, who, like Cyrus' character,
07:53notably made plaster casts of celebrity genitalia.
07:56In the film, she's the creator of a highly sought-after plaster cast of a respected U.S.
08:00senator, played by Matt Damon.
08:02According to Coen, Cyrus was already familiar with the history behind her character prior
08:06to signing up for the movie, telling The Wrap,
08:08"...she's into that, both the retro hippie thing and the whole phallus-molding thing."
08:13The past few years have been rife with rumors about whether or not Miley Cyrus will return
08:17to acting, especially after achieving some of the biggest accomplishments a musician
08:21can achieve.
08:22She's won Grammys, she's had a record-breaking hit song, and she even sang a duet with
08:26Beyoncé for her album, Cowboy Carter.
08:29The time may be close, though Cyrus has expressed the one reservation she has about stepping
08:33back into her role at this point in her career.
08:35In an interview with W Magazine, Cyrus admitted it'd be hard to return to acting given how
08:40larger-than-life her celebrity persona has become.
08:42She told the outlet,
08:43"...I would like to act again, but the role would really need to be right, since it's
08:47kind of hard for people to see past me and buy into a character.
08:50The character would either need to be an extension of myself or someone or something with a personality
08:55that can conquer my own."
08:56Nevertheless, Cyrus' trepidations about acting again haven't stopped the rumor mill.
09:00Fans have clamored for a Hannah Montana reboot ever since the door closed on the character
09:04in 2011, and Cyrus herself has also supported the idea.
09:09We don't know if there's a future for Cyrus as an actor, but she has very little to prove
09:12at this stage of her career.
09:14That was evident this year when she was named a Disney Legend at D23, the company's biennial
09:18expo.
09:19The honor is meant to induct important figures in Disney's history and legacy into a Hall
09:23of Fame.
09:24Cyrus has in the past revealed that starring in Hannah Montana gave her an identity crisis,
09:29she has also been more forgiving of her past in recent years, telling Rolling Stone,
09:32"...I discredited myself for what I'd been almost every step of the way.
09:36Drawing dead pets, discrediting bangers, drawing bangers, discrediting Hannah Montana.
09:40What makes you an adult, I think, is being okay with who you've been before."
09:43Cyrus' Disney Legends speech was also an appreciation for where she's been in her career.
09:48While fighting back tears, she said,
09:49"...because in reality, I was a little girl in a blonde wig at the mall with a big dream.
09:54But in my heart, I was Hannah Montana, and I was so proud to be her."
09:57"...I stand here still proud to have been Hannah Montana.
10:01She made Miley in so many ways."