Miley Cyrus on Creating Music for ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ and Sneaking Food into the Theater

We brought all of Erewhon into the Dolby, and we just told security that I had an extra pair of flats in the bag. You met James at Disney Legends, and that sort of led to this relationship. But I'm curious, in terms of writing this song, he's obviously an artist, you're an artist. How much did you collaborate with him on the gist of the song, and how much of the film did he show you, basically? I watched the film in multiple different stages. I watched it in, you know, kind of almost fully finished. I've seen the film in kind of its journey. It's such a large-scale film, and so much goes into it. And I think all of us now are completely amazed, knowing that all the actors do it in real life, in all the costumes, are fully in Pandora. And then, what it takes to make it become this Avatar world. So, I saw it in a lot of different stages, which was great for me songwriting, because it took me kind of on the journey with them. As I was coming in on the back end, they've been working on this for over 16 years. And I was just jumping in kind of, you know, new and not totally understanding the process. And so, being able to dive into that and kind of understand it was really helpful for me. And James really gave me the keys. Like, he really let me do my thing. And people that know what they want and are confident, that just gave me the confidence to lean in. He just always told me to be myself. Don't you find people that are the best at what they do are the easiest to work with? Hello! We say it all the time. Because it's confidence. And I think by him choosing me, he actually chose me, where he let me do what I do, rather than choosing me and then turning me into something else or someone else. Every time I would call him to ask him for advice, he would say, just do what you do. Were there certain pieces of the film or any sort of scene or any sort of overall feeling that fed you as an artist as you were writing? Okay, well, I am a costume queen. So, for me, it was all about the different looks and the intricacies of knowing that every garment was actually handmade. James has said it a lot. It's not an animation. This is something that is actually people weaving and creating these insanely beautiful tapestries. For me, when I write a song, I love to have a visual. So, I just kind of kept imagining some of the braiding and the weave of the leather and what that means to actually take these different strands and by putting them together, you are creating something beautiful, which is what their clan is about and is what that chosen family is about. Every person matters to create this kind of one beautiful thing, but you can't have that beautiful thing without every individual strand. So, which character's outfit would you rock on a red carpet? Oh, my God. I love all the tiny ones. Oh, yes! Yeah, all the little braided pieces and the little braided skirts, but I love all of them for really different reasons because I am someone that's kind of inconsistent in the way that I like to experiment. What I love about the Avatar universe is I can see myself within every character. There's part of me that kind of loves something that feels really strong and powerful like when they're about to kind of go into this battle and fight back, but I also love the kind of softer beauty of Pandora. So, you need to be in the next Avatar. Hello! Exactly. Yeah. I actually listened to your speech from Disney Legends. You're talking about weaving and I never heard the t-shirt story before. Oh, yeah. And I love that in that speech, you have such reverence for that character and you said, without Hannah, we wouldn't have Miley. So, coming back to the world of Disney, as you are now, what was that like for you? It definitely felt like a homecoming. Everybody was super warm and welcoming and excited because I felt like I could do the best job for this as well because I kind of understand Disney on a really deep level. Something that I don't have to think about. It's just intuitive. I know it. It's so part of me from my upbringing. And so, I know deeply, I think, what Disney magic kind of is all about and because of Hannah Montana, because the song was such an important piece of that, I know how to write songs for Disney. So, how would you describe this song, then? Well, I think it definitely is an example of the growth because, obviously, my time making music with Disney and what I've done with Avatar, even though it might sound grown and evolved and it is, something like Dream is One isn't that far away from a song like The Climb from the Hannah Montana movie. I love that song, by the way. Thank you. My fans say that this is the 2025 The Climb because it really is about the same message. It's about that resilience, courage, and, you know, the never giving up. The themes are, you know, that's what I love about the Disney themes. They've always got some piece of, you know, value or a moral that I can really stand behind. Do you have a place that you like to sit in the movie theater? Do you have, like, do you wrap yourself in sweats? And, like, what do you snack on? I have a whole system to my closet. When I organize my clothes, I don't do it, like, kind of. I don't do anything regular. I do it by, like, who I am that day. And I have a movie theater girl section in my closet for who I'm going to be when I go to the movies. Because sometimes, first of all, movies are the cutest date. So I have, like, that's a little bit of my date section but you also don't want to sit, which I did last night for three and a half hours in a corseted ball gown. So I don't have corseted ball gowns. The ball gown was everything, by the way. It was everything, but it was boning. So when I saw these dudes sitting in their suits and everything, and then I had the full... And they're manspreading. Yeah, and the whole situation, I was fully corseted. My feet were numb by the time that I was going to leave because I didn't take my shoes off. I won't do that in a movie theater. That's just one thing I won't do. So I kept my little heels on the whole time and I have a section that is going to be super cute. You never know who you're going to run into at the movies. And so I want to look cute, but I also need to be comfy and I don't want to be cold. Okay. So it's all about warmth. Yes. Big shaggy coats, good scarves. I can't be cold and I want to be comfy, but I also just have to look. And what are you snacking on? Okay, we sneak our own into the movie theater. We did it last night, too, at the Dolby. Okay, what'd you take? Oh, we brought mango. We brought rice cracker chips. We brought olive air one into the Dolby. And we just told security that I had an extra pair of flats in the bag. You know, the shoes are really uncomfortable. We have to bring the bags. I got to have the flats. Meanwhile, we literally had, like, the Hailey Bieber smoothie in the bottom of the Tom Ford duffel. Fully. Oh, my God, I love it. We want to know what you watch. If there's any film or TV show that you've watched recently that you're blown away by. Besides Avatar. Obviously. Before Aspire and Ash that you would recommend. That I would recommend. Well, okay, this is another plug, but I have to do it because I watched it when I wrote The Last Showgirl. I watched the film when I wrote that song. But I watched it on a plane. And I think planes are a real tell-all about a movie. You're by yourself. You've got your headphones on. Seeing something on a small screen because you don't have the extravagance of everything else. And forget, I love the movie itself, but it's all about Pam. She is so incredible in that. And I don't think I was paying as much attention to her performance because I was so focused on what is the story here? I mean, I always focus on Pam, but I'm thinking, what's the story here? How do I tell, you know, a thing with a film that's tough is especially Avatar. It's three hours long. So now I've got to tell the story in three minutes. So I'm doing that with The Last Showgirl. What's her story? What's her journey? And I just watched it intimately by myself again. And I'm just blown away by her performance. She's incredible. She really is everything. Yeah. It's so funny because I watched Way of Water on a plane and it holds up on that small screen which tells you it's amazing. It changes everything. So obviously we're in a time where people are doing musicals. Singers are doing musicals. There's live action remakes. Is there one that's close to your heart? Or is there a Disney character that you would think about maybe coming back to? Hannah Forever. I always think about with Hannah, it's an interesting type of musical because it's not a, we call it a stop-and-singer feeling. It's not like something happens and then you bust out into song. It's really woven into almost like a soundtrack where a scene could be happening and you're getting an original song but you also, because of the awareness that she's a pop star, you can also have really major performances in a way that you can't do that in all musicals. You know, you've got to grab the microphone. You've got to have the lights. You've got to have the full fantasy, which I love. So what does the t-shirt say today? If it said, I should have my own TV show, what is the t-shirt? I have my own TV show and I'm doing the theme song for Avatar. Don't forget. That's my new t-shirt.