Hilary Duff looked back on her storied career from Disney’s “Lizzie McGuire” to “A Cinderella Story” to “Younger.” The beloved actress revealed why she believes one of her iconic characters helped inspire “Hannah Montana.”
Hilary Duff Believes Her Character Inspired ‘Hannah Montana’
Duff, 38, sat down with Vanity Fair, where she rewatched some of her most popular films and shows.
After viewing the infamous scene from “The Lizzie McGuire Movie,” in which Lizzie cosplaying as pop star Isabella Parigi gets ready to take the stage in Rome to perform “What Dreams Are Made Of.”
Disney fans, of course, recall that pop star Isabella was also played by Duff—who donned a brunette wig for the role—throughout the 2003 film.
“Hannah Montana, she’s a normal girl but she’s like a singer at night,” Duff began after pausing the scene. “I think that Disney knew they were tapping into something when this worked so well. They were like, ‘Oh, the normal girl turning into a pop star.’ So I’m sure it was some source of inspiration.”
In the film, Lizzie and her classmates embark on a Roman holiday to celebrate their middle school graduation.
Three years after the film’s premiere, “Hannah Montana” debuted on Disney Channel, with Miley Cyrus as the titular character. In the show, Miley Stewart was a normal girl living in Malibu, California, but was secretly leading a double life as a pop star.
Cyrus previously admitted that the only reason she wanted the role was to follow in Duff’s footsteps.
“But the only reason I wanted it was so I could do whatever you did,” she told Duff during a 2020 episode of Bright Minded, according to E! News. “And so really, I don’t think I gave a [expletive] about being an actress or a singer. I just wanted to copy you no matter what.”
Hilary Duff Performed ‘What Dreams Are Made Of’ Live
Duff kicked off her “Small Rooms, Big Nerves” Tour on Monday, January 19, in London, where she performed the iconic song from “The Lizzie McGuire Movie” for the first time ever.
According to Duff, the reason she had never performed it live before was that she “didn’t own” the song.
“I don’t even remember recording that song,” she told Jake Shane during a November appearance on his “Therapuss with Jake Shane” podcast. “It was a weird time and it wasn’t technically my song. It was a Lizzie McGuire song….But if I would ever tour again, I think, maybe, I would be allowed to manage to sing that song somehow, someway. Maybe, you know, just maybe like hypothetically.”
