TeenVogue 2010

For the past four years, Miley Cyrus has played Hannah Montana, a teenager balancing her down-home persona with global superstardom. So it's easy to see her as an untouchable Hollywood starlet, a singer who bounces around Los Angeles with BFF Demi Lovato and gets paparazzied doing everything from walking her new puppy to kissing her costar in the middle of Paris while she's in town for our shoot.

But 2010 is different. The seventeen-year-old has decided to leave Hannah behind, put her music career on pause, and shed her goofy notoriety for a more grown-up vibe. Take, for example, her role in this month's weeper The Last Song, written by Nicholas Sparks of The Notebook and Dear John fame. Starring alongside gorgeous Australian newcomer Liam Hemsworth, Miley plays Ronnie Miller, a girl "who starts going down the wrong path," she says. "It's the story of how she finds her way to being happier and a better person through faith, love, and friendship." She and Liam may be a mismatched couple on-screen, but as they cozy up on the couch in Miley's hotel suite to talk to Teen Vogue about their new film, the duo looks perfectly in sync.

TEEN VOGUE: Miley, before you went to Georgia to film The Last Song, you had just gotten out of a relationship. How did you change over the next few months?

MILEY CYRUS: In L.A., I had so many security blankets, people helping me with everything. I tried to book my friend a flight, and I didn't know how because I was used to someone doing it for me. I didn't want a babysitter anymore. I came to Tybee Island crying harder than I had ever cried in my life—and I left with the biggest smile on my face.

TEEN VOGUE: What were your first impressions of each other?

MILEY CYRUS: He's really tall. I thought, Either I'm going to have to be in heels or standing on something for this entire movie! He definitely showed chivalry: I remember him opening the door for the director, and I was like, Wow.

LIAM HEMSWORTH: I have very good parents (laughs). It was funny—working with Miley was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. From the first time we read, it was like I had known her before.

TEEN VOGUE: So, you had chemistry right away?

MILEY CYRUS: Yeah. I think we're both deeper than normal people—what they think and how they feel. He's very grateful for what he has, but he doesn't let it go to his head. I'm like that too.

TEEN VOGUE: How many people did you read with?

MILEY CYRUS: Only three. The audition process is so intense.

LIAM HEMSWORTH: Basically, you're thrown into a room and judged.

MILEY CYRUS: It's like American Idol, but worse.

TEEN VOGUE: Isn't that pretty much every day in Los Angeles?

MILEY CYRUS: Uh-huh, but you pay your bills with what they say.

LIAM HEMSWORTH: At the start of this year, I flew to L.A. to do a screen test for a film [Thor] that my brother ended up getting. There are a billion people there trying to do what we do.

TEEN VOGUE: You seem very at ease with each other.

MILEY CYRUS: Honestly, people do not always get along on set, so for two people to want to be together this much ...

TEEN VOGUE: Just you, Liam, and the 3 million fans in Georgia.

MILEY CYRUS: I'm happy to meet them, and it's flattering, but I couldn't focus. Can you imagine someone at their office—like at a computer—and people are chanting at them while they're trying to work?

LIAM HEMSWORTH: The first day, I walked out, and one end of the beach was blocked off for fans—screaming kids. I'd never seen that before. It was quite amazing.

MILEY CYRUS: Sometimes you have to remember, OK, what would I have been like if I had met my favorite singer? It is exciting.

TEEN VOGUE: Speaking of music, I read that you're giving it up?

MILEY CYRUS: The more I make music that doesn't truly inspire me, the more I feel like I'm blending in with everyone else. So after this next album, I'm taking some time off.

TEEN VOGUE: Liam, do you sing?

LIAM HEMSWORTH: I don't sing well.

MILEY CYRUS: It's refreshing to work with an actor who isn't also a singer and dancer and musician and artist and this and that. I'm sick of quadruple threats who do everything when they should stick to one thing.

TEEN VOGUE: So he's just a threat?

MILEY CYRUS: He's a really freaking good actor is what he is. And he's cute—so he's got that.

TEEN VOGUE: You guys spent New Year's in Australia, where Liam is from. Did you have fun?

MILEY CYRUS: I'm used to being in Times Square or something like that, so having a day to chill was awesome. And I got to hang out with his family and friends and see where he grew up.

TEEN VOGUE: I hear the Hemsworths are big surfers. Did you try?

MILEY CYRUS: Nooo. I was like, I'm gonna go to Melbourne and take a shopping break.

TEEN VOGUE: You weren't the supportive girlfriend waving from the beach?

MILEY CYRUS: No. I was the brat who didn't watch. I'm not "cute movie" like that.

TEEN VOGUE: Your on-screen roles have been pretty cute movie so far. Now that you're shooting the last season of Hannah Montana, will there be more of that?

MILEY CYRUS: I'm working on lots of different films: drama, action, comedy. I like challenges, so I'm doing a little bit of everything.

TEEN VOGUE: And you have a cameo in Sex and the City 2. Do you identify with any of the main characters?

MILEY CYRUS: I know everyone says Carrie, but I love Kim Cattrall, so I'll say Samantha. I want to be her because she's the hottest, she's funny, and she has attitude.

TEEN VOGUE: With all of these projects winding down, maybe you'll be able to take some time off and relax.

MILEY CYRUS: I don't know if you noticed the past few years of my career? I don't really believe in breaks.

Edited for teenvogue.com. For the complete story pick up the April 2010 issue of Teen Vogue, on newsstands March 16!