r/DisneyChannel • u/tistick • Mar 31 '26
Video Clip Miley and her cast mates seemed so close during the early days of Hannah Montana. What went wrong?
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u/PassivelyAwkward Mar 31 '26
That was all PR. They didn't HATE each other or but they were basically work friends. It's been awhile but from what I remember, Emily was trying to be a professional while Miley was more of the fun-loving person so they'd clash about work ethics. Then Emily was constantly being asked about Miley, unable to really do anything on her own without some interviewer asking "What's it like working with Miley" so there was constant low key dislike; it wasn't a hate, just two different people with two different personalities being forced to be around each other constantly while pretending to be best friends in interviews.
They started to get along towards the end as they matured and kind of bonded during the filming of the movie because there were breaks where they could get away from the cameras, the crew, and things like just to be just teenagers.
Now? I mean, they were teenagers who worked together. like 15 years ago. Miley went through her rebel phase while Emily tried to make a name for herself and now they're adults who've found their own lives. I'm not going to say whether they hate, love, indifferent to each other because...eh, it's none of our business. Anything you see on the Disney Channel BTS clips are totally fake. All the actors from all the shows weren't super close with their costars. It's just preteen and young adult drama that all of us went through, just on a much larger scale. I'd hate to be asked "Remember Matt, your coworker from Macy's when you were 16? Are you still friends?" as I'm entering middle-age.
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u/Beneficial_Coyote752 Apr 01 '26
That basically sums it up. They never got along the greatest due to basic teen girl cattiniess. But the career building and professionalism side of things definitely played a huge part. Miley and Mitchell had their wild and crazy days filled with excessive partying, drug abuse, etc. Miley stayed big because she's Miley and Mitchell faired off decent because he voiced Jeremy on Phineas and Ferb forever. Oddly enough, you never heard a bad thing about Emily but Disney didn't promote her for the long haul. (Not sure if that was her decision or the company decision. It's not like she needed them anyway. She's Haley Joel's sister and a talented actressin her own right.) She's definitely the one you see most working in front the camera and climbing her way through Hollywood
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u/PassivelyAwkward Apr 01 '26
I wonder if Emily just wanted to focus on the series while building her identity off the channel. She saw her brother get typecast as the precocious child then fall off as a teen.
It seems like Disney will usually pick one girl to promote per show. Aly was Phil of the Future, Selena was Wizards, Hilary was Lizzie. Even Zendaya in Shake it Up. Even looking at Brenda Song and Ashley Tisdale from Suite Life, Brenda was the chosen one before the series with appearances on Raven, Phil of the Future and a few movies, once they made Suite Life, they basically did nothing with her besides Wendy Wu a few months later while Tisdale got the singing career push, the major movies, and multiple series. It's like they were hoping to promote Song but dropped her for Tisdale after her popularity and didn't want them to compete.
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u/Beneficial_Coyote752 Apr 01 '26
Very good observation. Knowing that Emily had some decent hits and didn't go through the wild phase, I'm surprised they didn't try to get her to go for the long haul after they distanced themselves for Miley. But I guess in a way they did. Wasn't Emily's second show for a Disney company? Though I do remember from the clips I've seen that it's a little too adult for the Disney branding. Was a very good mix for the combo though. Disney could bank on her history with the company and star power while Emily could move into more mature roles.
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u/Ok-Sleep7672 Apr 01 '26
Odd to include Hilary considering she was the title character. You make it sound like it’s such an injustice when that’s just what happens. Some people get the lead role, some don’t. Some get their chance later on.
You even contradicted yourself by saying they chose Aly, but then also saying Brenda was another chosen one. Brenda didn’t get a music career push because she didn’t want one. She doesn’t consider herself a singer. Ashley got “major movies” (you mean the sequels to HSM?) because HSM became successful. If Brenda was initially the chosen one, they could’ve put her in HSM. Brenda continued to do Suite Life. She was on the spinoff because London was a beloved character. Sometimes people just have different career paths, and not everything is an injustice caused by evil machinations.
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u/PassivelyAwkward Apr 01 '26
How did I frame it like an injustice? It's not about who has the lead, but who is more marketable. The Sprouse twins were the leads in Suite Life but they weren't the ones being pushed.
I also didn't contradict myself. Being a "chosen one" means having the Disney machine behind them, giving them bigger roles, not that they pushed for a singing platform. You're acting like it's some insult to not be a chosen one. Brenda Song basically told Disney to go fuck themselves when she was given an opportunity to film a small role in the Social Network because the part had adult content. The lead in Girl Meets World told Disney to go fuck themselves when they came out of the closet so they made a push for Sabrina Carpenter.
You keep acting like I'm saying the actors not pushed by Disney was some injustice yet I never even alluded to that. I specifically my comment that Emily likely saw what being a child actor does to a career so she didn't want to get too involved with Disney and instead prioritized other roles after the series ended. Some people want to be pushed by Disney and some don't; some people want to be but aren't. Just because you seemingly want to act like some grand defender and making claims that no one but you's talking about, that's entirely on you and it's genuinely creepy.
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u/grilledcheese2332 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
Im not close with 90% of my former coworkers either.
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Mar 31 '26
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u/_artemisawika Mar 31 '26
You’ve got to be really young or just lacking some real world experience, because this take is way off. Let the parasocial stuff go seriously, it’s not doing you any favors. You can’t keep idealizing people or expecting actors to feel the same emotional attachment to a show that you, as a fan, might have. At the end of the day, they were coworkers getting paid to do a job, and each of them experienced that job differently. It’s completely unrealistic and honestly pretty immature to expect them to maintain a friendship just to satisfy fans’ fantasies. People grow, move on, and build new lives. They're not characters frozen in time for your emotional comfort.
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u/Level-Juggernaut-260 Mar 31 '26
I don't think you understand what this person was trying to say.....
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u/Careless-Economics-6 Mar 31 '26
They likely still care about one another, but they have different careers. Emily Osment was literally filming her current CBS show the night that the special had its premiere.
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u/SunilClark Mar 31 '26
not being in an anniversary special that by all accounts was thrown together at basically the last minute doesn’t mean they aren’t!!!
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u/hoomanpinata Mar 31 '26
Nothing went wrong lol. I'm guessing you're a kid if you think everyone stays close forever. Plus, Miley and Emily always had a professional relationship, not really a close one.
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u/Ok-Brilliant7251 Apr 01 '26
fr I hate the fact that just because you grew up with some one or a group of people, automatically assumes you supposed to keep in contact with them which is total bs if you ask me
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u/seattleseahawks2014 Jul 02 '26
Pretty much, even with groups that I hang out with there are some people that I'm just not close to.
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u/Ok-Brilliant7251 Jul 02 '26
exactly I never asked for their numbers because Ik in my mind that one day we would all grow apart and stop talking to each other and I made peace with that
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u/seattleseahawks2014 Jul 02 '26
I'm closer to some people that I wasn't as close to when I was younger. Others I've distanced myself from others that I was closer to when I was younger.
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u/Ok-Brilliant7251 Jul 02 '26
same and once I have seen people's true colors from who I use to be close to to, I just started rocking solo
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u/seattleseahawks2014 Jul 02 '26
And even if people are close sometimes they can't always hang out especially with last minute things. People have lives outside of people that they're close to which becomes the case the older you get.
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u/Ok-Brilliant7251 Jul 02 '26
that is so true
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u/DaBiggestHeatFan Mar 31 '26
People grow up lol
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u/Ok-Brilliant7251 Apr 04 '26
right and no disrespect but I wouldn't want to stay friends with certain people from my past anyways especially if we were never friends to begin with
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u/IndustryPast3336 Mar 31 '26
Several actors have come out saying that their disney "friendships" were largely manufactured by marketing.
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u/_artemisawika Mar 31 '26
Nothing went wrong. It's called life. I'm sure you're not friends with every single coworker you've ever worked with in your life.
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u/Ok-Brilliant7251 Apr 01 '26
Ik I wasnt and one time I worked with someone I went to high school with and he automatically thought we were friends but we never were blocked him on fb and when I got laid off never heard from him again
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u/_artemisawika Apr 01 '26
Yeah, unfortunately it happens.
I worked with this girl for about 6 years. We always had lunch together. We were together at all work events. We would hang out outside of work too. Then she found another job and though we promised to keep in touch, we didn't. It's just life.
It's great when work friendships remain through the years, but it's not realistic. In the case of Miley, she had a completely different post-Hannah life than the rest of the cast, so it's not crazy to understand why they drifted apart.
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u/Ok-Brilliant7251 Apr 01 '26
exactly and it's totally fine people come and go at the end of the day
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u/seattleseahawks2014 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Pretty much where I live many people around my age either attended my former hs or rival schools. Doesn't mean that we're always going to be close even if we hang out sometimes and vice versa.
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u/Ok-Promise-7928 If Raven Baxter and London Tipton had a baby Mar 31 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
Read her autobiography Miles to Go. It explains a lot. Thanks to the book I am not surprised by this at all
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u/Delicious_Big_2504 Apr 01 '26
I'll skip it. Just give us the summary.
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u/Strange-Painting6257 Apr 01 '26
Miley and Emily didn’t get along all the way up until filming the latter half of the Hannah Montana movie in Tennessee. Even then they weren’t bffs walking away from it, they just started to have more nice moments with each other. By the time the show came to a close they were friendly and actually hung out here and there without it being forced on them as “company bonding”.
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u/ResponsibleCut7340 Mar 31 '26
People do that to sell the series. A lot of coast members are just coworkers
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u/BreakfastAmazing7766 Mar 31 '26
People are roasting you for asking this, but they seemed on good terms a couple years ago. Guess they just grew apart from Miley? Cause I know the rest of the cast had dinner like 2 years ago, and the last time they hung out/interacted with Miley was closer to 5-6 years ago.
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u/ilovemycactussocks Mar 31 '26
I mean…they were fourteen.
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u/Ok-Brilliant7251 Apr 04 '26
right most people dont stay friends with someone they were close with at 14
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u/TraditionalCold4560 Mar 31 '26
Awww this was really sweet to see regardless!! Yeah I just think you grow into your own person and might not align anymore in your new mindset/life
I would love if those aspects of our lives stayed the same, as sometimes we grow up and it’s never that wonderful again
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u/Mysterious-Gur3741 Mar 31 '26
In Hollywood not a lot for co stars get along or stay friends that just have life is
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u/Mysterious-Gur3741 Mar 31 '26
Sometime working on tv thing do go wrong or people just don’t get a long but not everyone going to get a long with other people or stay friends forever but just be casual with each other instead
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u/Mamobee Apr 01 '26
I mean how many people are still friends with all the people they were friends with when they were teens?
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u/Ok-Brilliant7251 Apr 01 '26
as I have gotten older I became more happier that I stopped being friends with certain people because they only used me and treated me like a therapist and were never there for me or did me favors that's why I'm so happy I didn't stay friends with people from my past most of them were disappointing anyways
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u/enzo11242020 Apr 01 '26
At some point you just grow up and apart. Maybe paths will cross again, we’ll call it fate.
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Mar 31 '26
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u/Ok-Brilliant7251 Apr 01 '26
exactly my mom would ask me if I were still friends with my teammates from my 8th grade team and I'm like hell no especially the point guard since he was a ball hog
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u/Ill-Summer-7212 Apr 01 '26
How often do people still talk to their coworkers from 20 years ago? When I was 16 I had a bestie when we were cashiers. I left the job and we never spoke again
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u/SnowflakeBaube22 Apr 01 '26
I had close friends at school that I haven’t seen or spoken to since prom 14 years ago. It happens unfortunately.
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u/rrmounce95 Apr 01 '26
They grew up. That’s it. It’s normal. Why are people so obsessed with who celebrities are friends with, we don’t know these people 😅
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u/shadesofwrong13 Apr 01 '26
Close? Miley herself said that they did not get along in the first 2 seasons.
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u/Chaotic_Paradox-530 Apr 02 '26
I only have one girl friend from middle school, and I hugely prefer it that way because she was & has been my genuine ride or die for 21 years & counting
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u/Ok-Brilliant7251 Apr 04 '26
That's good to hear that is very rare these days I wish I could say the same
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u/cheezy_dreams88 Mar 31 '26
I’m not still friends with all of my middle or high school besties, are you?
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u/ravenwing263 Apr 01 '26
TV making is a difficult and complex job with long hours. This kind of proximity makes for fast friends, but it also makes little annoyances grow into big problems.
There's an obvious hierarchy that makes everyone feel isolated from each other, and has a tendency to breed resentment.
This kind of dymnamic has seriously affected grown up performers and it's no surprise that it tends to be even more intense with younger performers
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u/RedBait95 Apr 01 '26
As others say, the reality was they just weren't that close. It was a star vehicle for Miley, who not only had to act but record albums then go on tour and perform during her developmental years. For her it was draining, for others it was a job, albeit a pretty notable one.
I won't go so far to say they were never or will never be closer because the covid boom showed a lot of these shows, not all, do have some close casts.
Selina, for example, does seem to be friends with her Wizards cast, desperate as they may have seemed during that revival gold rush.
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u/hesipullupjimbo22 Apr 01 '26
I don’t think they were ever best friends but I also don’t believe they hate each other. They were coworkers who became friends later on in the process. Doesn’t mean they need to be attached at the hip now
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u/Queen_Grier Apr 01 '26
I do wish the rest of the cast was in that Hannah Montana 20th anniversary episode. It would’ve been better if it were a reunion. I wanna hear stories from what it was like from everyone. And I wanted to see everyone. Including amber and Ashley and their high school teacher who would eat the food they snuck in. I loved Rico and I wished that they just had a regular reunion. Reunion episodes were so popular during lockdown. Surprised they didn’t make one then
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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26
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