The ‘totally traumatic’ event Miley Cyrus brought out of her ‘Black Mirror’ performance


When Miley Cyrus appeared in an episode of Black mirrorMany were quick to compare that role to the most popular one. But there are also similarities between that character and Cyrus herself. This is how a significant event in her life allowed her to take advantage of that role.

Miley Cyrus started as an actress in ‘Hannah Montana’

Cyrus has been acting for a long time. Her first major role was in the Disney Channel series. Hannah Montana. She played the main character, Miley Stewart, a teenager who is also a musician. To maintain a sense of normalcy in her life, Miley puts on a blonde wig and calls herself Hannah Montana, keeping her true identity a secret.

The sitcom played between 2006 and 2011 online, with a feature film released in 2009. He released Cyrus, who starred alongside his father, Billy Ray Cyrus, to stardom. Cyrus released music alongside the show before eventually branching out as an artist in his own right.

She played a pop star again in ‘Black Mirror’

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In the years since Hannah Montana went off the air, she has continued to act here and there. However, most of her roles have been on the big screen. One of her few companies in the television world came up with a role in an episode of the hit 2019 anthology series. Black mirror on Netflix

In the season 5 episode, “Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too,” Cyrus plays Ashley O. Like Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana before her, Ashley is a pop star who wears a wig and sings lighthearted songs. But underneath it all, she is someone completely different. Cyrus also voices Ashley Too, the robot toy as Ashley O in more ways than one.

Cyrus says filming was ‘really cool’

In a Variety interview in June 2020, Cyrus spoke more about filming the episode. “We shot in South Africa. I really enjoyed my time. I made records and traveled around the world, but I was able to spend about a month there and record in the studios and I was able to work with some choreographers that I might not have worked with before. ”

She went on to say, “It was a really cool experience, being so isolated from my family and friends. I was able to really disconnect from myself, and I was really able to get into Ashley. “

She drew from this real life experience

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Cyrus filmed the episode in late 2018. While there, the Malibu home he shared with then-fiance Liam Hemsworth caught fire in the Woolsey fire. Not long after Cyrus returned from South Africa, the couple married. But during filming, she says that “she was able to get out of that trauma and use that” in her performance.

“When Ashley woke up from a coma and was totally traumatic, that was the day I lost my home in Malibu,” he said. “There were times when I had to stop and just go out there and melt completely. It was a really interesting time for me because a lot of things were falling apart in my personal life, and it was the same thing that was happening in Ashley’s life. “

How Cyrus is like Ashley O (and how he is not)

Miley Cyrus as Ashley O in 'Black Mirror'
Miley Cyrus as Ashley O in ‘Black Mirror’ | Graham Bartholomew / Netflix

Cyrus doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge what she is like Ashley O. “There were some obvious similarities to the character I played before they really became my life, like she wanted to explore rock ‘n’ roll and change her gender. That’s something that, right after Hannah MontanaIt was really important to me, “he said.

However, unlike Ashley O, she is not being controlled by a deviant manager. He loves having his mother as his manager, and says, “Without my parents, I bet my life would have been more like the Ashley O story. What really makes me different from Ashley is my parents and the team that my parents surround me. ”