Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth Sing
"The Last Song"
by Lynn Barker
 Whether Miley Cyrus and hot Aussie Liam Hemsworth are a "couple" or not, it is obvious, as they sit in front of us at our Santa Monica beachside interview, that they have a mutual attraction. Her eyes are glued to him and she's listening intently when he talks and he grins and laughs at everything slightly funny that pretty Miley says. She gives him the thumbs up when he says something flattering. Awwwww.
It's no secret that the duo met playing a budding couple in the Nicolas Sparks-written romantic drama The Last Song and Miley confides that at Liam's audition interview, when the tall, buff and handsome actor opened the door for her, she was sold!
According to this duo, the film was a learning experience in a variety of ways. Liam had to learn both volleyball (not an Aussie thing, I guess?) and scuba-diving and Miley had to learn to play classical piano... in two lessons.
Paint a mental pic of Miley in black super-skinny jeans, a classic black blazer over layered black and white gauze tunic and major-high sandal/heels (she and Dakota Fanning could have a contest on this). The darn shoes are sooo high that an assistant has to let Miley lean on her for balance while walking down steep stairs! Very, very dark red nails and some major bangles and necklace pendant accessorize the outfit.
Both tall Liam and petite Miley have great tans (spray or real) and Liam is casual in jeans and a grey/brown shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the collar open. He looks like a hot lumberjack! Let's talk beachside fun off set, the end of "Hannah", Miley's first dramatic role, true love versus crushes and why Miley has given up tweeting!
AGW: Miley, "Hannah Montana" is finishing Season Four. Are you moving on to films?
Miley: Right, now, the Disney Channel is airing one of the last episodes of Season three and now we're finishing up Season four so a new chapter is beginning. What's been my life for the last five years is ending so it's interesting to be leaving my security blanket behind but also it's exciting getting involved with this movie and making me want to just continue to work and do more films.
(We had a) complete ending for Season three and now we think our show deserves that too. It's such a huge, big deal in so many kids' lives that I think they don't want to see reruns forever. They want a really respectful ending and it really deserves that because it's been such an amazing journey.
AGW: So, I guess no more "Hannah" movies?
Miley: No. "Hannah Montana" and the wig is (she whistles) out! As soon as that last episode is over, one will be in a museum and one will be burned or something because I can't put it on again. It's just too much.
 AGW: Both of you, making a transition to more film roles (Liam starred in a lot of Aussie TV), how careful do you have to be when choosing your work?
Miley: We were kind of planning when the transition would take place; when I would leave the show behind and do something else. I've gone these last five years of doing 'Hannah Montana' with everybody telling me what to do. Now, it's kind of up to me (to pick) what I think is right for my career.
So, I've just been going in my own direction and I have to be careful, in a sense, to not lose who I am and to lose the Miley Cyrus factor by going on to do other characters. I want them to know who I am but I want to extend my audience and just continue to do what I love but also give myself new challenges and not just be the same person over and over.
AGW: Does it help to work with a really hot guy in your first dramatic film? (Liam is grinning)
Miley: Yeah. (Talking) with Nicholas about the writing I said 'I like animals, I like music, hot Australians', that's what I kind of made him write into the book so that was interesting. It was a good choice (Liam is cracking up). It worked out fine and I owe Nicholas bigtime! (laughter).
AGW: Liam, did you two hit it off right away or was there a "rocky" period?
Liam: Pretty much, from the first day we met, it was good. I came in and I didn't know how big a star she really was. I'd seen the show she's on but I had no idea how big Miley Cyrus was. I guess that was good because I didn't get nervous about that. We came in and we read and it was really good and she was amazing to work with. (Miley is looking at him this entire time and just beaming).
Miley: I got a little bit nervous about how "big" he was, this way (she raises her arm high above her head indicating really tall) because I was like 'I'm gonna have to stand on apple boxes or something'. It made me a little bit intimidated even though I'm usually the one who is intimidating someone else.
Julie Anne and everybody kept saying, 'he's worked a lot in Australia. It's gonna be awesome. He's gonna be really good'. I'm like 'great!' This was my first film and he's worked before so I was a little bit nervous with everything.
AGW: We heard that he was a real gentleman and that impressed you?
Miley: Yeah. He opened the door (for me) and I'm like 'he opened the door. That was good! He's got the part!' And everybody else was like 'just read with him first'. 'Oh, okay but he's got it. I don't care'. (laughter)
I didn't want to be the one that made the final decision because if he ended up being crazy, I didn't want to be the one that ruined the whole thing but he ended up being awesome and it was so fun. I think I was a little bit intimidated and it's hard for someone to do that to me. It's true.
AGW: Since The Last Song is your first dramatic role, what did you learn from this experience that you'll take with you for the rest of your career?
Miley: I think once I saw one of the final edits, there's always going to be things that you take yourself apart about 'that's not there! This isn't there'. I think (I learned) just go into each day doing your best and don't get too attached to anything. Just leave it. Everyone has their jobs.
I know that everyone else is doing the best they can at what they do and I'll do the best I can. So, I think (I learned) to always keep that in mind and keep it day by day and realize that, at the end, there will be an edit. I think that was the hardest thing for me is that I'd never...when I did 'Hannah Montana' that was something I wasn't so familiar with. It was interesting watching the edit (and saying) 'I could have done that better'. I think (I learned) just don't criticize yourself.
 AGW: You are a pretty nice girl as 'Hannah" so how did you channel your inner rebel to play the part?
Miley: I just kind of dropped the guard for a little while, threw all the fits that I wanted to in the past year kind of on screen. It was fun to be able to go into work and not be necessarily exactly what was on the page. I felt like(director) Julie Anne gave us the freedom to add our own things and if something didn't feel comfortable (we could change it).
There would be things where I'd say 'uh, I don't think that's right' or with anything that was going on with the set or what we were wearing or how we looked, I felt really involved so I think that made it easier not to just look at the page and have to do exactly what was there but have the space to be able to grow and add our own personal thing to the character.
AGW: What aspect of your character Ronnie do you relate to the most?
Miley: I was glad I got to have some part in (playing) music in the film. It wasn't necessarily singing which is what everyone always wants to put me in. 'Let's give her a singing role' and I didn't necessarily want to do that. I didn't want that to always be the thing that I lean on.
But, I definitely relate to the music and working with animals was really cool, just things that were a little bit of me in the character but also different. But, I think that the music was probably the main thing I related to.
AGW: And you had to learn piano?
Miley: Yes. 'It's so hard, I had to take two whole lessons' and Julie Anne was like 'you picked it up in two lessons?' and I was like 'I know! It was sooo difficult'. I guess it takes a lot of people a really long time but I was used to playing instruments and I'm not really scared to sound like crap for the first week.
I started kind of messy but I got better and better and, by the end of the movie, I think I finally actually had the songs down. So, it took me a while. It was great though really but Greg (Kinnear who plays her dad) didn't keep up with his lessons, he never practiced. It was really bad (laughs).
AGW: Are you continuing with the piano?
Miley: Yeah, I'd like to continue playing piano. I have (played) a little bit; learning different styles too. It wasn't just playing piano but classically and getting into that type of music was something I thought I would be into so that was cool.
AGW: Liam you had to learn scuba diving and volleyball. Which was the hardest?
Liam: Volleyball. Volleyball was the hardest thing I've ever had to do I think. They asked me before we started shooting, if I played volleyball and I said 'yeah, no problem'. And, I turned up for the first day of practice and I honestly was really scared to shoot the volleyball back because it takes a lot of skills, I guess, to play that game and I didn't have them at all. And I turned to Julie Anne and said 'I think we're going to need a double because I can't do it'. (Miley laughs).
 AGW: Was there a double just standing by?
Liam: It's hard to find someone as big as me. But, I got better. We had days where it was just us and we were playing pretty good against extras who hadn't played before (laughter) so we looked pretty good against them.
But we had a day where we had 300 extras there watching us play against professional volleyball players and they made us look stupid. I'd throw a spike down expecting it to hit the sand and we'd get the point and I'd turn around to high five my buddy and looked back and the ball's coming back. (Miley is giggling). (To the other team) Stop Winning!!
AGW: How did you like the pretty island location (off the coast of Georgia)? Did you get to go out there?
Miley: I would move to Tybee Island just to eat there all the time. Yeah, I definitely put on a little weight when I got there. I always got to eat while he was at the gym so it was awesome. I definitely want to go back to Tybee. I like being in the South on the beach.
Liam: Huc-A-Poos (I actually looked this up people!!)
Miley: Yeah, there was some pizza, definitely a lot of food so I would probably just move there to eat and have my other location be L.A.
AGW: Getting serious for a sec, there are themes of faith, forgiveness and family in the film. What did faith mean to you?
Miley: I think faith can be anything. It can be believing in yourself or if you believe there is a higher being that is watching over you, it can be really anything but I think it's just having something to lean on and that's what she (Ronnie) didn't have. That's the reason she was kind of sad before. If you're living a lonely life, that's how you're going to feel. You're gonna feel like you can't accomplish anything. You're not good enough.
So, I think it's just about having something to lean on which was Will (Liam's character) and her dad and finally, new friendships. I think that's the biggest thing about what faith is... just having someone to lean on.
AGW: How do you avoid over-the-top melodrama in a movie that is okay in a book? Miley, how did you ride that thin line?
Miley: I think Julie Anne helped me with that. If the first scene I do is a sad scene, I'd say 'well my character would cry. That's what I would do' and she was like 'No! The whole end of the film, the next scene, forty minutes of it can't just be crying. There has to be some other dimension to it'. And I think that's the biggest thing that I learned was to go deeper than that and realize what it's going to be when you're watching an hour and a half film. You don't just want to see one type of emotion.
You want to see her getting through it, trying to have strength so that was the biggest thing and that was why Nicholas (Sparks) could have feared having me come onboard because I wasn't as experienced but Julie Anne kind of helped me do that. The crying scenes were easy but scenes where she was torn up and was sad, it's easy to bring tears and to cry but it's a little bit harder to find something beyond that and be able to see it in your eyes and see it in your body language and not necessarily just the obvious.
AGW: Here it comes! How do you know when you're in love versus a crush?
Miley: Liam? (laughs)
Liam: How do you know whether it's a crush? (Is he blushing?) I don't know. (Looking back at Miley) You want to take this? It's kind of an odd question.
 Miley: What are you staring at me for? I don't know. I get so embarrassed. This is so awkward but I guess when you are trying to play cool and you're like 'oh, I won't text back until the next hour' because that's when you know it's actually serious.
It's a game. It's so stupid. You have no idea how many times I was like 'oh, he called. I'm not gonna call back until tomorrow'. It's so stupid, the games, that's when it gets confusing but you know when you're over-thinking it, you must really like somebody.
Liam: I think when you meet her parents too, or she meets your parents, it gets a little bit more serious.
Miley: My parents are, sorry mom, but like a little loco so if you love me and my family of five and my grandma lives with us and we have ten thousand dogs so if you love me after you meet my lifestyle, then you're good. You're a keeper.
AGW: Miley, we hear you gave up Tweeting. What happened there?
Miley: I was just kind of tired of telling everyone what I'm doing. I hate when I read things where celebrities are complaining like (snooty voice) 'I have no personal life'. I'm like 'well, that's because you write everything that you're doing'. So, I was that person that was like 'I'm so sad. I have no real normal life. Everyone knows what I'm doing'. Well, that's my fault because I'm telling everyone'.
I'd tweet 'I'm here' then wonder why a thousand fans are outside of the restaurant. Well, hello, you just told them (we're all laughing) I was thinking that doesn't make much sense and everything I'm saying is not really going with what I'm putting on the internet so yeah, kinda lame.
AGW: How is life post-tweet versus before?
Miley: I'm a lot less on my phone. I'm a little bit more social. I have a lot more real friends than friends who are on the internet that I'm talking to which is not cool, not safe, not fun, and most likely not real. I just think everything is better when you're not so wrapped up in that.
I think it's kinda lame. I go hang out with my friends and they're so busy taking pictures of what they're doing to put on Facebook that they're not really enjoying what they're doing. You're going to look back and have ten million pictures but you're not in one of them because you weren't having fun. You were too busy clicking away. So, I think just enjoy the moment you're in and stop telling people about it. Just enjoy it for yourself.
AGW: You sound like somebody's mom right now.
Miley: (laughs) Yes, I do. I'm telling kids, 'don't be on the internet. It's dangerous. it's not fun. It ruins your life and you should just be outside playing sports or something and not sitting in front of any type of screen (Liam is laughing a lot now).
AGW: What is going on with your music?
Miley: Right now I'm just finishing up my record. My record will be out towards the end of the summer and I'm really excited about that because I feel like after doing this film, it was kind of a test for me to decide what I really wanted to do.
I love making movies and that's what I want to pursue. It's not that I don't love music. I love music. If every film could have a part (for me) with music I would (do it). But I feel like I need to get away from that for a little while and it's another thing that is kind of my security blanket and I don't always want to fall back on that.
I feel that the music industry is so contrived and so political right now, I people stepped away and said 'we're not gonna work like this. It's more about our art than the politics, I feel like it would go back to be respected again. Right now, I feel like it's lost a lot of respect and I'd rather be in an industry where I feel like I can be different and do things that really inspire me.
pictures
courtesy of and copyrightTouchstone Pictures, 2010 |
