As “Hannah Montana”, she is probably the biggest teenage star on the planet. Now, at 19, Miley Cyrus is fighting to grow up and bring her music to ‘the next level‘.

“Whew,” says Miley Cyrus and strips the ten-inch stilettos from her feet as she falls on the leather couch of the chic SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. It is shortly after noon, and she’s already half a dozen television interviews behind her. She puts on her long legs and makes herself comfortable on the couch. “Hi,” she says cheerfully, beaming. But we’re immediately interrupted. A little dog comes into the suite, and jumps to her on the sofa.

“Happy!”, exclaims Miley with baby voice, and puts her arm around the dachshun sized mixed breed. He ran up to her a few weeks ago in a parking lot bay, she named him ‘Happy‘ because that’s like her life motto. She has combined five years of her life as ‘Hannah Montana’ in the Disney seires of the same name cheerfulness and rock’n'roll to a million dollar enterprise. But now, a good year after the end of the series, the word ‘happy’ is also a relic in new use, as the striped shorts, which she has owned since sixth grade in combination with a beige silked shirt, emphasize the sexiness of her long legs.

Maybe too much for the fans
Now, the 19 year old tries to position herself in the adult world. With ‘LOL‘, a spirited comedy based on the same name original French with Sophie Marceau, she made a movie with intimate hairstyles and first sex, alcohol and marijuana are the focus of extensive mother-daughter trouble, and it is not surprising that the (two years ago made) film in the United States, only in ‘limited release’ in a handful of big-city cinemas, in which it promptly fell through. The transformation of America’s former favourite girl, who just still apologised to have sat unbelted in the car, to the party girl with a Brazilian and pothead friends, this is possibly too much for the fans.

Cyrus now wears a small gold ring in the right nostril and a ring chain on which “Liam” is engraved, the name of her boyfriend, actor Liam Hemsworth. The so-called Promise Ring, which at Disney’s times not only her, but also her first boyfriend Nick Jonas, and generally, all Disney Stars wore as a Christian Symbol of the chastity up to the married carried has come off. “They just say 15 things you would say later, not so,” says Cyrus. “When I was a little girl, I thought it was great to put on a wig and sing and dance. But at 15, 16, you realise that it’s not so cool anymore. That’s not me anymore.”

From 2006 to 2011, Cyrus, who had moved with her family from a farm in Tennessee to LA to make a television career, played a decal of herself: the schoolgirl Miley Stewart who leads a secret double life as rock star Hannah Montana. She went with the alter ego of her television figure on tour and became the idol of one generation from 7 to 13 year olds, the preadolescent tweens who were outlined as a target group in the wake of the first series success. Only what she was, Cyrus could not be. When she had small breasts, she was wrapped on the set of the series with bandages. “It was crazy,” she says, “they looked at me and said: ‘What’s with these breasts, make them flat!’ I was turning into a woman but I couldn’t because I had to play a little girl on the show!”

Today, Cyrus speaks of the fact that she finds sex “wonderful”, and explains why men and women have a different concept of relationships. “When a women kisses a man or has sex with him, a special relationship is created for her. While men are much more non-binding.” She wants a female president because she thinks women are more intelligent. “Because of, men are the providers – how often do guys go shopping? We put food on the table!”

Her father, the supporting actor
With their whisky and cigars voice and direct way, they could possibly have developed in the smoky bars of their hometown Nashville. Instead, it was taken by a group ideal world and the puritan concept of happiness for which she played a teenage model, a disguised Pippi Longstocking, who was allowed to live in rebellion and rock just as a gesture.

Everything was ambiguous in this universe, from the constellation of the series, in which her father Billy Ray is also the series father. Billy Ray Cyrus was once a country star himself with “Achy Breaky Heart“, in the year of Miley’s birth. Now he was degraded by his daughter to the supporting actor, while she became the richest teenager in the world.

But Miley idolized her father, and he adored her – until she was too much for him. When the pubescent Miley tried in rather harmless lascivious self-portraits – a photo by Annie Leibowitz showed the fifteen year old with bare shoulders wrapped in a sheet – these emancipatory gestures with public apologies were denied for the fans immediatly again.

“Hannah Montana” had destroyed the family
And after the photos of a hookah-smoking Miley appeared on the internet (to the hasty protestation of her agents, Miley had only inhaled legal sage, made the whole thing only suggestive), Billy Ray stayed away from the celebration of Miley’s 18th birthday. Instead, he filed for divorce from his wife Tish and cried that “Hannah Montana” had destroyed his family. He complained that he was afraid that his daughter would take a showbiz end like Anna Nicole Smith or Michael Jackson.

This wasn’t happy, even if Billy Ray Cyrus has, in the meantime, teared together with Tish and Miley again. “My father always said: This too shall pass,” says Miley Cyrus, “and I’m trying to remember, that none of these dark moments last forever. Everything that has a beginning also has an end.” She says it with a touch of patience, the countless excuses of her youth have done her too much in the defensive.

“First of all,” she says, “you are never beyond the stage where you make mistakes – you’re not Gandhi, you’re not Mother Teresa. You are not exactly perfect.” The ones who criticise most sharply, are the least qualified, says Miley. “None of them are 19 or 20, they have it behind themselves for 20 or 30 years!” She has been through a lot, and she finds that she has fought very well. “I’ve alway done things that make me happy, my friends and family and my own satisfaction always came first, never my career.”

‘Half-dressed at the Billboard Awards’
Today she is simply happy to owe no-one accountability. “I’m comfortable with my body and my sexuality. I mustn’t hide anymore, and I can really be me.” Who that is exactly, admittedly isn’t clear. Miley talks about “music that makes people happy” and “movies that make people happy”. She changed her management and will focus on music in the future, “bringing her music to the next level“.

But currently she hits the headlines with risque outfits and the toad callers already see her in the whirlpool of the celebrities setting. In the past week, she provided with nonthing but a very low-cut white jacket for a sensation that reached scarcely over the bottom which thrilled the “LA Times” to the line: “Miley half dressed at the Billboard Awards“. This fits very badly to her complaint that she spends her spare time best at home in foreclosure “because I am simply out there just constantly harassed“. But it is maybe simply too tempting for young stars to eke out the existence of young adults rather than infamous than gifted. Nineteen and filthy rich is simply no situation in which one turns their back to the thrilling glitter of Hollywood to devote himself to more serious things.

Back when life was simple
The assets of Miley Cyrus is estimated at 54 million dollars, and her boyfriend Liam Hemsworth has turned with “The Hunger Games“, just one of the most successful filsm of all time, even in a supporting role. “We had his first big check framed and hung on the wall,” she says. “He has laid floors before he became an actor, nothing just fell into his lap.”

Apart from the fact that “all Australians are incredibly good-looking men,” she likes Liam because he’s such a down to earth, relaxed guy. “He reminds me of my friend from the South, who I spent my childhood with,” she says. Back when life was simple, and no-one knew Miley Cyrus. It may not be easy for them to emancipate themselves from youth as a teen star.

“But also with 40 people are still afraid of growing up,” she says, then noticing that Happy has left her lap. The dog stands at the edge of the fine leather sofa and studies the ground in the depth for escape possibilities. Timid, he leans forward, but it’s a big jump. He steps back, looks at Miley and hops willy-nilly back into her lap.

(This article has been translated from German, with big help from @AlexMileyFan! Some of this may be wrong and may not make sense. If you have any corrections, leave a comment! Also, we spent almost 3 hours translating this to English. Please credit if used anywhere else!)

Source: Faz.net