Miley Cyrus pulled double duty as Hannah Montana and Miley Stewart on Hannah Montana — but her salary was allegedly lower than both of the actresses who almost got the part.
Cyrus, 31, reportedly made $8,000 per episode for the first season of the Disney Channel show, according to author Ashley Spencer’s new book, Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire.
Taylor Momsen and Daniella Monet were the two other finalists for the role. Since both actresses had more “significant past credits” than Cyrus at the time, Momsen and Monet “would have earned $10,000 per episode,” the book claims.
Momsen, now 31, had already played Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas and appeared in several other movies when she read for the TV role. (She landed the part of Jenny Humphrey on Gossip Girl one year after Hannah Montana premiered.)
Monet, now 35, made her TV debut with a 1997 episode of Pacific Blue and had recurring roles on American Dreams and 8 Simple Rules before starring on Listen Up from 2004 to 2005. When Hannah Montana didn’t work out, Monet became a Nickelodeon star, playing Trina Vega on Victorious from 2010 to 2013.
Cyrus, meanwhile, had only appeared on three episodes of Doc and played a young Ruthie in Big Fish before she read for Hannah Montana. The TV show marked her first lead role and shot her to superstardom.
While Miley’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus, was already a big country star when she started acting, his name didn’t hold weight in her casting. “Miley being Billy Ray’s progeny hadn’t helped her get the part,” casting agent Catherine Stroud revealed in the book, which came out on Tuesday, September 24.
In fact, it was Miley’s mom, Tish Cyrus, who “floated the idea” of Billy Ray, 63, trying out to play Miley’s onscreen dad.
“Wanting to keep the mother of their new star happy, the network agreed to humor the Cyruses and allowed Billy Ray to read,” Stroud recalled, noting their perception of the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer changed when he arrived at the Burbank studio with his guitar in hand.
Stroud remembered thinking Billy Ray was “so over the top handsome” and couldn’t stop talking about his kids during the audition. “We were dying. It was so endearing,” he explained.
According to the Disney High author, the Hannah Montana team “needed to rewrite Billy Ray’s character so that he had a reason to be home all the time” because he was such a hit with the writers. “His storyline would now be that of a musician who had given up his career to support his daughter’s dreams,” Spencer wrote, adding, “Art would soon imitate life.”
The father-daughter duo starred on Hannah Montana for four seasons before the show ended in 2011. Billy Ray later claimed that his time on the series “destroyed” his whole family. (Tish and Billy Ray share three children, Miley, Noah and Braison. Billy Ray also adopted Tish’s two eldest children, Brandi and Trace, from prior relationships.)
“I’d take it back in a second. For my family to be here and just everybody be OK, safe and sound and happy and normal would have been fantastic,” he told GQ in 2011. “Heck, yeah. I’d erase it all in a second if I could.” (Tish, for her part, made it clear in a “Call Her Daddy” interview earlier this year that she didn’t agree with Billy Ray’s remarks.)
More than a decade after the show wrapped, Billy Ray and Tish, 57, filed for divorce in April 2022. The split was not their first breakup, but both Tish and Billy Ray have since moved on. (Tish married Dominic Purcell in August 2023. Billy Ray wed Firerose in October 2023, but the pair announced their divorce in June.)
Billy Ray and Miley have also had their ups and downs in recent years. Miley unfollowed her father on social media amid his divorce from Tish in 2022. The rift grew when Miley attended her mom’s wedding and seemingly didn’t support Billy Ray’s union with Firerose.
When Miley won Record of the Year at the 2024 Grammys, she didn’t thank her father in her acceptance speech — but she did give a shout-out to her mom.
“He’s almost given me this map, and it’s a map of what to do and what not to do, and he’s guided me on both,” Miley said of Billy Ray during a June appearance on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. “Without my dad, I know … who I am as a person wouldn’t exist. Because my dad as a creative and like, as an artist, and the way his brain works has always made me feel safer in my own mind.”
Despite tension with her father, Miley couldn’t be happier about her time on Hannah Montana and how it has shaped her career. “I stand here still proud to have been Hannah Montana,” Miley said in August after being named the youngest ever “Disney Legend” at D3 2024: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event.
“In so many ways, this award is dedicated to Hannah and all of her amazing loyal fans, and to everyone who has made my dream a reality. To quote the legend herself, ‘This is the life,’” Miley added.
Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire is out now.
