{"id":182367,"date":"2025-12-09T05:27:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T05:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/182367\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T05:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T05:27:14","slug":"miley-cyrus-on-avatar-tune-and-20-years-of-hannah-montana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/182367\/","title":{"rendered":"Miley Cyrus on ‘Avatar’ Tune and 20 Years of ‘Hannah Montana’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cI wish I could wake up every day and know who I\u2019m going to be,\u201d Miley Cyrus<\/a>, the singer\/songwriter and actress, says on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s Awards<\/a> Chatter podcast, which was recorded the morning after the world premiere of James Cameron\u2019s Avatar: Fire and Ash<\/a>, which features \u201cDream As One,\u201d an original song that Cyrus co-wrote and sings, over the film\u2019s end credits \u2014\u00a0and which, on Monday morning, received a best original song Golden Globe Award nomination. \u201cBut,\u201d she continues, \u201csometimes I even surprise or excite or disappoint myself, because I just so get lost in whatever the idea is in the moment. Sometimes that works in my favor, and sometimes it doesn\u2019t. But it makes for an exciting life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCyrus, 33, has been a household name for nearly 20 years. The daughter of \u201cAchy Breaky Heart\u201d singer\/songwriter and actor Billy Ray Cyrus and dancer-turned-manager Tish Cyrus, she was born and raised, until the age of 11, in Nashville, Tennessee. As a kid, she spent considerable time with her father on his tour bus, and also on the Toronto set of a TV show on which he was acting, Doc, on which she was given a cameo and caught the acting bug herself. She soon thereafter began taking acting lessons, landed an agent and was cast in small projects independent of her dad. Then, her mom heard about auditions for a Disney Channel half-hour sitcom called Hannah Montana<\/a>, about a brunette schoolgirl by day who dons a blonde wig and becomes a pop princess by night.<\/p>\n

\n\tCyrus first auditioned for Hannah Montana \u2014 specifically, for the supporting role of Lilly, the main character\u2019s best friend, who was eventually played by Emily Osment \u2014\u00a0when she was just 11, but she was passed over and a pilot was shot with others. Then, that pilot was abandoned, the project was rebooted and Cyrus twice more auditioned, with her family flying her to Los Angeles, at their own cost, to enable her to do so. Eventually, she won the title role, leading the Cyruses to relocate to LA. She shot the pilot at 12, and turned 13 while shooting the first episode after it had been ordered to series. From 2006 through 2011, Hannah Montana was a bona fide cultural phenomenon, generating huge ratings on TV and massive music<\/a> sales, as well, and making little Miley a world-famous superstar.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI loved being Hannah, but I wanted to be Miley,\u201d Cyrus recalls two decades later. \u201cI wanted to start building that.\u201d So she soon began releasing records \u2014\u00a0and touring \u2014\u00a0as both the character and as herself, landing high on the Billboard charts under both personas. For example, \u201cThe Climb\u201d came from the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack, and \u201cParty in the U.S.A.\u201d from her own EP The Time of Our Lives; both albums were released in 2009, and both made it into the top 5 of the Hot 100. She eventually began taking more deliberate steps away from the Hannah persona, which she found somewhat frightening \u2014\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s scary when you\u2019re keeping grownups that have families, you\u2019re keeping their lights on, and you\u2019re just a kid\u201d \u2014\u00a0via the edgier 2010 film The Last Song; the 2010 album Can\u2019t Be Tamed; and, after parting ways with her manager and label, the 2013 Bangerz album.<\/p>\n

\n\tBangerz included the hit singles \u201cWe Can\u2019t Stop,\u201d which had originally been written for Rihanna, and Cyrus\u2019 first single to reach number one on the Hot 100, \u201cWrecking Ball.\u201d It was her 2013 MTV VMAs performance<\/a> of \u201cWe Can\u2019t Stop\u201d \u2014 in which she emerged from a giant teddy bear, wearing a risque outfit and with her tongue sticking out, grabbed her crotch, put on a giant foam finger and twerked in front of Robin Thicke to \u201cBlurred Lines\u201d \u2014 that put the final nail in the coffin of her Hannah persona. Surely Cyrus knew that that performance would provoke widespread backlash from many \u2014\u00a0including parents whose kids regarded Cyrus as a role model \u2014 as it did? And surely she wanted a reaction? \u201cIt\u2019s never been about that expectation of reaction for me,\u201d she insists. \u201cMy mom is somehow the brains behind all the crazy things that people go, \u2018How could her mother let her do that?!\u2019 It\u2019s like, \u2018It was her idea!\u2019 [Actually,] it was all my idea, but my mom just really supported it. I wasn\u2019t really going for the reaction so much. What I cared about most was that teddy bear! I was, like, obsessed with it. I wanted to work with this artist, Todd James, who made it and made all the costumes. Again, I was focused on the creative part.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCyrus says that she was actually oblivious to the controversy that she had caused until Donald Trump, of all people, reached out to her: \u201cI didn\u2019t know what the big deal was, and never thought it was a big deal, until I woke up the next day. I was staying at the Trump hotel and Trump sent me a message that said, \u2018Don\u2019t let them get you down,\u2019 and I was like, \u2018But why would I be down?\u2019 And then I turned on the TV and I was like, \u2018Oh, because everyone in the world is making fun of me.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the years after that, Cyrus experienced a considerable amount of personal turmoil \u2014\u00a0\u201cMy house had recently burned down [in November 2018], I had gotten a divorce [from Liam Hemsworth], my personal life was literally on fire\u201d \u2014\u00a0but her music just got better and better. A 2019 performance in front of hundreds of thousands at the Glastonbury Festival in England was a triumph; her 2023 album Endless Summer Vacation was an acclaimed hit, and one of its singles, \u201cFlowers,\u201d brought her the first two Grammys of her career, including record of the year; and she began offering to write original songs for screen projects that she felt a connection to. Last year, she contributed the tune \u201cBeautiful That Way\u201d to The Last Showgirl, which starred her friend Pamela Anderson, and it brought her a Golden Globe nomination. Also last year, she ran into Cameron at Disney\u2019s D23 event, at which they were both being inducted as Disney Legends, Cyrus as the youngest inductee ever. She recalls, \u201cI was waiting line for my turn, and I said, \u2018Do you need a song?\u2019 And he did.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tFor the third installment in his Avatar film franchise \u2014\u00a0following 2009\u2019s Avatar and 2022\u2019s Avatar: The Way of Water, which are the first and third highest-grossing films of all time \u2014 Cameron wanted a ballad to play over the end credits, and requested that it be titled \u201cDream As One.\u201d Cyrus embraced the challenge: \u201cI feel that I\u2019m someone that, if I can go and get myself by a piano, can write a song that feels like it\u2019s large-scale enough to flow into something like Avatar \u2014 because it needed to fit \u2014 but I also can write something that\u2019s intimate and emotional enough that can hopefully bring the heart forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe teamed up with Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt and Simon Franglen to do so, watching early cuts of the film and immersing herself in its world while working on the song. \u201cWe projected Pandora into the studio,\u201d she reveals.\u00a0\u201cI was actually in Sunset Sound, but I could create the world of Avatar around me, and that was really inspiring.\u201d She would also chat by phone with Cameron for hours. \u201cHe has a pretty amazing perspective on love, life, death, grief, trauma, healing, resilience, courage, faith. That was more important to me, for the songwriting process, than even getting to watch the movie itself, because it\u2019s his imagination, so getting into his mind on how he perceives the human experience, that was really, really helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmazingly, the version of the song that is in the film and garnering awards almost was abandoned. \u201cWe did a lot of songwriting sessions,\u201d Cyrus explains. \u201cWe actually wrote the song that it is now, \u2018Dream As One,\u2019 and we threw it out \u2014 we got rid of it \u2014 and we wrote another one. And then that one didn\u2019t feel quite right, and we left, and we came back and listened to the other one \u2014 the one that\u2019s out now \u2014 and we\u2019re like, \u2018That\u2019s the one\u2019 \u2014 and then we threw it away again! And then we wrote another song. And then Mark was out of town, and I called Mark and said, \u2018Okay, should we really abandon that one?\u2019 And he goes, \u2018I don\u2019t know, let\u2019s just take a break.\u2019 And then he comes back in town, and there\u2019s another song, and we listen to it, and then I\u2019m like, \u2018Let\u2019s listen to \u2018Dream As One\u2019 one more time,\u2019 and we do, and everyone goes, \u2018Forget these other songs, it\u2019s \u2018Dream As One.\u2019 And we went back to day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat Cyrus loves about Avatar: Fire and Ash is that it\u2019s about a \u201cchosen family,\u201d something that she relates to, having become tremendously close with her bandmates and other collaborators over the decades. She also loves the Avatar-esque idea that one\u2019s voice is a reflection of both the head and the heart. And, having lost her home in a fire, the title and message of the film speak to her directly: \u201cIt\u2019s about resilience and building from the ground up, and part of that is strength and fighting back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s next for Cyrus? She hopes to keep writing and performing songs that reach and move the masses \u2014\u00a0and says that she would love to do so for a Bond movie. (\u201cI definitely would. I actually feel like kind of my last album, a lot of people, when they were listening to songs like \u2018Easy Lover,\u2019 they would say \u2018This sounds like a Bond song.’\u201d) She wants to provide a good example for the new generation of pop stars who say she inspired them, including Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan. (\u201cI hope that the way that I\u2019m living life now, where I\u2019m really balanced between personal life and professional, I hope that kind of inspires them as much as the kind of height of what I was doing. I hope now that these women can see that you can have a really healthy personal existence.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd yes, Cyrus will be getting married again. Indeed, on the morning of this recording, she confirmed reports of her engagement to drummer Maxx Morando, who she featured in the music video for \u201cEnd of the World,\u201d a song from her most recent studio album, 2025\u2019s Something Beautiful, that she wrote when she was missing her mom. She describes it as \u201cmy love letter to the two pillars of my life that really keep me where I am now, which is the best I\u2019ve ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI wish I could wake up every day and know who I\u2019m going to be,\u201d Miley Cyrus, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[32160,6971,99017,93,6661,61,60,6662,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-182367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","9":"tag-awards","10":"tag-awards-chatter","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hannah-montana","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-miley-cyrus","16":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}