It’s been 20 years since Hannah Montana first premiered on the Disney Channel, and to celebrate, Miley Cyrus donned the iconic blonde wig again for a Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special. The special, which is available to stream with a Disney+ subscription, featured a number of original cast members, special guests, and performances by Cyrus/Hannah. The Grammy winner also shared a ton of behind-the-scenes lore, and she wasn’t the only person spilling secrets. One Hannah Montana star totally lied about their age in order to join the series, and the truth is shocking.
With this revival of early Disney nostalgia, Jason Earles, who played Cyrus’ older brother in the show, recently launched his unofficial official Hannah Montana podcast with director Shannon Flynn and writer Douglas Lieblein. In the inaugural Best Of Both Our Worlds episode, Earles revealed that Hannah wasn’t the only one hiding her true identity:
I was desperately afraid that I was going to be fired and recast because I had a big secret. When I auditioned for the show, I lied to them and told them I was 18 years old.
As it happens, Earles was actually 28 at the time of his Hannah Montana audition, a.k.a. over a decade older than his character Jackson was written to be. You might be saying, 'Hey, that happens all the time these days.' True enough, it’s more common than you think to have 20-somethings play teenagers on TV. Outer Banks’ Chase Stokes (John B) was 27 when the teenager treasure hunt show took Netflix by storm, and Darren Barnet was 28 when he played high school heartthrob Paxton Hall Yoshida in Season 1 of Never Have I Ever.
Article continues belowThis was not the case with Disney Channel back when Hannah Montana aired in 2006. The network prided itself on being a channel for kids, by kids. The faces you saw on Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, and The Suite Life of Zach and Cody were the general ages of their characters, which was a factor Earles said he considered before his audition:
It was another reason why I almost didn’t audition for the show because I was like, I’m too old. The character’s 16. Nobody’s going to buy it. And what’s funny is Lisa London, who cast it, when she brought me in, she was like, ‘Hey, I know you’re 19,’ because I had lied to her in a different audition. And she was like, ‘Would you be okay, when you go in there, they’re trying to cast it as close to age as possible. Would you lie and tell them you’re 18?’ And I was like, ‘I think I can do that.’
Ironically, Cyrus revealed in her Used To Be Young series on TikTok that she was initially rejected for the role as Hannah because she was too young. The “Flowers” singer was 13 when she first put on the blonde wig, and even younger when she first auditioned. Her co-stars, Emily Osment (Lilly) and Mitchell Musso (Oliver), were both 14.
So clearly, Earle's worry about his age was valid. If London thought 19 was going to be an issue, 28 would have had him immediately out the door. Of course, the cast and crew had to find out eventually, and Earles and Lieblein said the secret came out about halfway through filming the first season.
In traditional 2000s sitcom format, new episodes were filmed and released weekly, with some scenes taking place in front of a live studio audience, so fans had already gotten used to the Kickin’ It actor as Miley’s older brother, Jackson. They could have re-cast him, but honestly, as someone who was watching Hannah Montana at 6 years old, we couldn’t tell! Besides, Earles and Cyrus had the perfect sibling energy, and I can’t imagine anyone else playing Jackson.
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