There's irony in the title Hannah Montana Forever, which is what the fourth and final season of Hannah Montana is being called.
Pointedly, series star Miley Cyrus always has said she had no intention of playing Hannah Montana forever.
"I've never faked it, saying that I'm always going to be Hannah forever," said Cyrus, 17. "I'm going to grow up at some point. I've been always honest about that.
"So I think it has made the transition easier, because I never said I was going to be perfect. I never really put on a persona. I've always been really honest about who I am.
"And yes, I want to be a role model and have people look up to me. But this also doesn't mean that I am not going to live the way I want to live, or do what I think is right."
The truth is, Cyrus already has outgrown Hannah Montana, the fourth season of which debuts across Canada on the Family Channel Aug. 4.
Certainly as a singing and acting brand, Cyrus is not a little girl any more, nor does she carry herself that way. There always is that awkward period when kids from the Disney Channel -- which is Hannah Montana's network of origin in the United States -- start to mature and develop sex appeal, usually with unaired episodes of their wholesome TV series still in the bank.
"I think it's the right time (to end Hannah Montana) because we've been working since I was, you know, about 11," said Cyrus, the daughter of singer Billy Ray Cyrus, who also stars in the series. "That's when I did my first audition.
"So you know, there's only so much you can do. We don't really ever call it a kids' show, because it has been so much more. It has been more of a family show, because if it were just a kids' show, the parents and the older brothers and sisters don't necessarily want to watch."
Creatively, though, Hannah Montana is at a crossroads.
"You don't want it to grow up too much, where the younger audience feel they can't watch the show anymore," Cyrus said. "But also, you don't want to go backward and make it so young that you lose the older fans that you have."
All things considered, even though she already has moved on in so many ways, Cyrus said she will miss the stability of having Hannah Montana in her life.
"Probably just the security blanket," Cyrus said. "When I go on tour, when I go shoot a film, or whatever I'm doing, I always get to go back to that same rhythm that I know so well, and the same people, and know it's going to be a comfortable place and a good environment. That's not the same on every set.
"It's nice coming back to a set where you have people that you could be yourself around, before any of this craziness happened, before my records, before my movies.
"It sounds weird, but (Hannah Montana) seems almost like going to school, and I'll miss that."
bill.harris@sunmedia.ca
