Lucy Hale’s Shocking ‘Hannah Montana’ Audition Revealed: The Role That Could’ve Changed It All!

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While the role of Hannah Montana is now known as the role that launched the career of superstar Miley Cyrus, in another reality, it would have been the big breakout role of Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale. From the mid-2000s to the early 2010s, the names
and Miley Cyrus were inescapable as they were a cultural phenomenon. After 17 years, Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert still remains the highest-grossing Super Bowl weekend opening and Hannah Montana: The Movie grossed $155 million worldwide in 2009. It is hard to imagine anyone else in the role of Hannah Montana, but it turns out the role could have been very different if she had looked like Katy Keene‘s star.

During BuzzFeed’s The Puppy Interview, Hale revealed many of the high-profile projects he auditioned for over the years, including Pitch Perfect, 50 Shades of Grey, and even recently, The Substance. However, the biggest one might have been the role of Hannah Montana, which she auditioned for back when she was 14 and still living in Tennessee. “It was a couple years before they had cast Miley in it. I remember the audition. It was a taped audition in Tennessee. It was the audition that made me want to be an actress. I remember that vividly, it was very cool,” Hale said. Speaking about the many parts she auditioned for over the years, Hale said:

“I feel like, because I’ve lived in L.A. almost 20 years, everyone who gets the role is always, it’s meant to be their thing, but for every ‘yes’ to an audition, there’s like a lineup of 200 that you heard a ‘no’ for, so I should probably go back like in journals and look at all the things I’ve auditioned for.”

Disney publicly announced they were making Hannah Montana, intending to find a star and model the part around them, in 2004, which would have been around the time Hale was 14. Miley Cyrus was not officially announced in the lead role until August 2005. Cyrus initially auditioned for the part in 2004 but was denied for being too young and was said to lack the experience. However, she persisted and was cast in the lead role at age 12, with Hannah Montana debuting on Disney Channel in March 2006. Miley Cyrus went into the long process of landing the part of Hannah Montana during her induction into the Disney Legends ceremony in 2024.

The Best of Both Worlds

While Hale did not land the part of Hannah Montana, between 2005 and 2007, she landed guest spots on hit television series like Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, Drake & Josh, The O.C., and How I Met Your Mother. In 2007, she landed her first main series role in the remake of Bionic Woman, which was canceled after one season. She later was the lead in the series Privileged before landing her most iconic role, Aria Montgomery, on Pretty Little Liars, which aired from 2010 to 2017.

Hale has since had a successful career in film and television, with roles in movies like Truth or Dare, The Hating Game, Which Brings Me To You, and recently F*** Marry Kill. Meanwhile, Cyrus has become a major pop music star who has also shown her vocal range in rock and country while also occasionally taking on cameo roles in films like The Night Before, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Drive Away Dolls. It is interesting to wonder how things would have gone had Hale landed the part of Hannah Montana back in 2004, but one wonders if it would have been the same cultural juggernaut that it was. While Hannah Montana might have started out as Disney’s attempt to make their own corporate pop star, clearly, Miley Cyrus, as a performer, connected with audiences in a deeper way than Disney might have anticipated. She was the right person at the right time. Even though Hannah Montana wasn’t written for Miley Cyrus, it is difficult to imagine anyone else but her in the role.

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2025-03-17 03:33