Former Disney star Mitchel Musso says working on other projects while filming “Hannah Montana” was nearly “impossible.” In a new interview, the 34-year-old opened up about his growing career while he was playing Oliver Oken on the Disney Channel Original Series, saying that filming the show consumed so much of his time that there was no chance for him to consider doing anything else. His comments are being spotlighted just days after he made headlines for calling out the network for failing to properly pay homage to “Hannah Montana”.
While appearing on the “Joe Vulpis Podcast,” Musso revealed that he was so busy on the set of “Hannah Montana” that there wasn’t a chance for him to work on other projects. He explained that since the series was “bigger than life,” his agency likely turned down other opportunities that would’ve pulled him away.
“I don’t know if you could have done anything bigger than Hannah [Montana] when Hannah was on, right? That was bigger than life,” he said. “So, I’m sure there were things that were offered to my agency, but it was impossible to do it because we were so locked in with Disney. If it wasn’t a DCOM — a Disney Channel Original Movie — then…we couldn’t do it.”
Mitchel Musso Passed On Big Opportunities, But It Was All Worth It To Him
One of the projects that Musso had to pass on was a role in “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” On the podcast, the “Hey” singer said that he had to turn it down because the schedules would conflict. Despite that, Musso looks back on his time as Oken with glee, saying that he formed a close bond with his co-stars, Miley Cyrus and Emily Osment.
“It was the cast,” he said. “Like this is our middle school, high school, college. This was our [formative years]. We graduated a class of three. It was just me, Miley, and Emily, right? So, it was everything to us.”
Musso shared that their bond was so tight that they “never wanted to be apart” from each other. “We had so many inside jokes. It was our little, our click, you know, us three. And everybody, everybody’s included in that, but specifically us three because we were all around the same age,” he said.
Mitchel Musso Admits To Rarely Watching Himself In ‘Hannah Montana’
Elsewhere in the interview, Musso told the podcast host that he rarely watched episodes of “Hannah Montana” despite the show running from 2006 to 2011. He confirmed that he watched other Disney series, such as “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,” “Phineas & Ferb,” and “That’s So Raven.”
He then explained that part of why he didn’t watch himself in “Hannah Montana” was because he didn’t want to see himself on screen, saying, “I can’t stand seeing the playback … It just makes me even more nervous.”
“I love being in front of the camera, but seeing myself on it, it doesn’t sit well. I’m so bad about things like social media because I have to stare at myself doing it… I can’t seem to do it. But I’m getting better,” he said.
Musso Praises ‘Sister’ Cyrus
Regarding his friendship with his co-stars, Musso said that while he’s not as close with them today, he still has love for them all. He went on to praise Cyrus, calling her one of “the coolest people” to be around before giving the singer her flowers.
“One of the most impressive people and watching her career…it’s not like I talk to Miley every single day, but you know the once or twice a year that I do get to speak with her, she’s my sister, you know what I mean? I’d do anything for Miles,” he said.
Musso Slams Disney For Its ‘Hannah Montana’ 20th Anniversary Special
Last week, Musso made headlines when he slammed Disney for failing to properly celebrate the 20th anniversary of “Hannah Montana.”
“It’s too long of a wait to do it in a way that isn’t even close to, in my opinion, correct,” he said about the special, which featured a sit-down conversation between Cyrus and Alex Cooper. “The kid in me was banking on it, like ‘I can’t wait for us to all be on set again,’” he added. “And it just didn’t work out that way.”
