Miley Cyrus escaped the darker side of child stardom for one key reason: her parents never needed her fame.
The former Disney star recalled how having father Billy Ray Cyrus by her side on the “Hannah Montana” set created a buffer she believes many young actors never get.
Cyrus starred in “Hannah Montana” with her real dad playing her TV dad. Cyrus told Variety having Billy Ray on set shielded her from the dark side of children working in Hollywood.
“My parents didn’t need me to be famous to survive or to be stable,” she explained.
“What happens to a lot of these kids is their parents want it more than they do, or the kids become responsible for the entire income of the family,” Cyrus added. “That was never my job. Every penny I ever made went into my bank account because my parents were good.”
Billy Ray’s dressing room was connected to Cyrus’ and her grandmother, Loretta “Mammie” Finley, managed the star’s fan club from the kitchen-turned-office.
“My dad was on set every single day, so there was nothing that could happen that he wouldn’t know about,” Cyrus noted. “There was never a time where I was going to be alone in that dressing room.”
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In hindsight, Billy Ray was a perfect casting call – but he wasn’t the first option. Billy Ray even attempted to recruit other actors for the role.
“He goes out into the parking lot, grabs other dads, brings them into Disney and is like, ‘You should hire this guy! He’s a great actor!’ And my mom was behind him, squeezing his back, saying, ‘Shut up! We need you to get the role so we can all move out here!’”
“My dad always says, ‘When you knock ’em out, you don’t need a judge.’ We knocked ’em out,” she recalled. “It was so obvious, after all the other dads, that you can’t fake the kind of connection that we have. The inside jokes, the nicknames, the handshakes, singing the songs together. It was a TKO.”
After “Hannah Montana” ended in 2011, Cyrus reinvented herself – which led to criticism at times. She chose to go in a completely different direction rather than continue to star in “Hannah Montana” spin-offs or other Disney-related projects.
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Cyrus released her third album, “Can’t Be Tamed,” in 2010 and followed up with “Bangerz” in 2013. She further shredded the Disney girl image by twerking on Robin Thicke at the VMAs.
“I boldly and unapologetically presented myself to the world at that time, where I could have gone the other way and played it safe,” she told the outlet. “Maybe that would have been successful at the time, and it wouldn’t have been such a cross to bear, but I wouldn’t have had the reward. I don’t know if I would have had the sustainability that my career has now.”
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Transitioning from her childhood stardom into adulthood left a mark on Cyrus.
“It’s no surprise that I had my experiences with drugs and alcohol,” she explained. “I was so used to living at a high, and I don’t think I ever learned how to come down from that. Now, through a sober lens, I can have compassion and understanding for myself.”
