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Enter: Gary Marsh, the former president of Disney Channels Worldwide.
“I had this nutty ambition that we could turn a fictional pop star into a real-life superstar,” Marsh told Cyrus and her mother, Tish Cyrus, backstage.
Marsh read to the Cyruses the email he sent to executives, in which he said he wanted to “pull the trigger” on Cyrus, a no-name from Tennessee who he admitted was a “risk.”
It worked.
The then-sixth grader didn’t want it “that bad,” Cyrus said. But she knew she could sing, she knew she could dance, and she was fine with the blond wig. So she hopped on a plane to LAX and the rest was history.
Putting on the wig felt normal, Cyrus recalled, remembering how she turned into Montana instantly.
Cyrus was paired with actors Mitchel Musso and Emily Osment, who rounded out the best friend trio that was central to the show.
Disney Channel legends
Cyrus was not the only star exploding on Disney Channel when “Hannah Montana” entered the mix.
There was Raven-Symoné, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Dylan and Cole Sprouse, the cast of “High School Musical,” and many more stars who became familiar faces of the Disney-verse.
“Hannah Montana” helped draw in even more star power.
Taylor Swift, for example, was in the “Hannah Montana” movie as she was jump-starting her career, and she wrote Montana’s finale song in the film, “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home.”
Thanks to that era, Cyrus said she has been minted as a “Disney Legend,” which comes with a parking spot whenever she’s on the lot. She said that’s her favorite perk.
‘Home, sweet home’
Throughout the special, Cyrus toured the once-famous set and flipped through Stewart’s iconic rotating closet, pulling looks from throughout the years with her mom as the pair recalled when she wore each outfit.
Cyrus’ father, Billy Ray Cyrus, who also played her dad in the show, joined for an interview. The famous father-daughter duo talked about how even though it wasn’t, it felt like the show was written for them.
“It was art imitating life imitating art,” Billy Ray Cyrus said. “And you were always Miley to me.”
Gomez also made a guest appearance on the special, as she and Cyrus laughed over their roles as competing pop stars in one episode of “Hannah Montana.”
Chappell Roan — who grew up watching “Hannah Montana” — showed up on set, as well.
“You literally walked so I can run,” Roan told Cyrus.
Finding herself again
The end of “Hannah Montana” sees the star hanging up the wig to transition out of this phase of life and back to her life as a normal teen.
But making that transition, in real life too, “wasn’t always easy,” Cyrus recalled.
“I used to think of Hannah as something separate from myself. I would think of, as a character, even though it was me, I always would think, ‘What would be best for Hannah?’ And I didn’t always think about that as if we were integrated,” Cyrus told the fan-packed room where she performed some of Montana’s biggest hits. “And what I’m loving about this special is that it’s my kind of reclaiming, of merging, Hannah and Miley together.”
It took Cyrus some time to find out who she was without Montana.
“I love being Hannah, I love being Miley Cyrus, I love my personas, but what I’m most proud of is who I am as a person,” Cyrus told Cooper.
“I’m proud that that’s always stayed true. That what I’ve done has always come from a heart first. It’s always been about making the world a better place from what I can offer,” she added.
The special closed with Cyrus performing a new song, “Younger You.”
“Everyone has a fantasy of wanting to feel loved, and I’ve always felt it … especially from the millions of people,” Cyrus said. “But to experience it now, and imagining what my next 20 years might look like, is going to be so different than it did on a TV show. But again, so much of it will hopefully be the same.”
