Why Miley Cyrus Wanted to ‘Copy’ Hilary Duff
While the Disney theme parks are what many children around the world may dream of, a young Miley Cyrus had different Disney dreams. Cyrus was just nine years old when the Disney show Lizzie McGuire premiered in 2001, the perfect age to fall in love with the show, and its star, Hilary Duff.
Fans of the show watched Lizzie, the young teen, navigate her life with the help of a cartoon version of herself popping on screen to display her inner monologues.
Cyrus has now gone full circle, from an adoring fan of Duff to a Disney teen star herself to achieving a career beyond her young success, creating a type of stardom all her own. Duff now looks up to Cyrus as well, and they both got to gushing about their shared admiration via Instagram Live.
Miley Cyrus auditioned for ‘Hannah Montana’ to be like Hilary Duff
Cyrus used her time in quarantine to start conversations about a variety of topics while interviewing famous guests on a brief run of her Instagram live show, Bright Minded. As part of her “Women’s Wednesday” episode, she went live with Reese Witherspoon, Bebe Rexha, Dua Lipa, and her idol, Hilary Duff.
Before bringing Duff on the show, Cyrus played an old clip from her Hannah Montana days where she thanked Duff for making it cool to be a ‘good girl.’ Present-day Cyrus then introduced Duff with a big build-up: “The apple of my eye. The ruler of my heart. I’m getting the same quakes like I did in 2004,” she said just before Duff’s feed popped onto the screen.
Cyrus was all praise and couldn’t explain to Duff enough just want she meant to her: “I would never be sitting here, being able to be a light if it wasn’t for you and you showing me how to do that.”
Cyrus shared that the only reason she flew out to Los Angeles to audition for Hannah Montana was to do whatever Duff did. She said she actually didn’t care about being an actress or a singer, she wanted to copy Duff “no matter what.”
Hilary Duff thinks Miley Cyrus is inspiring as well
Over the course of the interview, Cyrus asked Duff what inspired her to start acting. Duff said she wanted to be like her older sister who was a dancer and went to auditions, but the conversation quickly came back to the two performers’ mutual admiration.
Duff came off as humble, centered, and appreciative and reflected the praise right back to Cyrus saying: “I can’t even believe what you’re saying to me it’s so sweet and so kind. But really I think that I totally look to you for inspiration on how to be cool and what to wear and what you’re doing and all of this shit.”
She also told Cyrus that she has been a bright light and has made so many bold choices that inspire her and others. Cyrus responded by joking that she wants fans to know that you can go from “stalking someone behind their tour bus to Facetiming them live on Instagram.” Dreams do come true.
Hilary Duff is reprising her role as Lizzie McGuire
Duff took the end of the interview to promote her baby care and feminine care products and mentioned that her show, Younger, is on hold for now. What she didn’t go into was the announced reprisal of her role as Lizzie McGuire.
The new Lizzie McGuire reboot was announced for release on Disney+, and production began in the fall of last year. The show will feature Lizzie just turning thirty, and with most of the original cast.
The show production went on hiatus, however, under a cloud of rumors that the reboot was not family-friendly enough for the platform. An official Disney spokesperson announced: “After filming two episodes, we concluded that we need to move in a different creative direction and are putting a new lens on the show.”
The fate of many shows, including Younger and Lizzie McGuire, are now all TBD until further notice.
