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Although Hilary Duff shot to fame playing Lizzie McGuire on the hit Disney TV series, there came a point when she wanted to detach herself from being known as the beloved titular teenage character.
As soon as Duff wrapped the series, which “shot incredibly fast” for only two seasons, she told Josh Peck and Ben Soffer on this week’s episode of Dear Media’s “Good Guys” podcast that she “wanted to sing.”
“I really didn’t want to be Lizzie McGuire anymore, as cool as it was,” Duff admitted.
“For so long people were just like ‘Lizzie, Lizzie, Lizzie’ and still now to this day, which it doesn’t bother me anymore but it did for a while like I just desperately needed to be my own person,” she explained. “I think that I thought music was gonna be a good way to introduce myself- reintroduce myself- and it was.”
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However, as the teenage actress tried to grow and tried to do something different at the time, people found it difficult to accept, as if Duff was turning her back on something that fans loved.
“I would say that was five years of my life just trying to navigate becoming a person that I wanted to be outside of who everybody wanted me to be,” she said. “I remember being on tour and having mothers come up to me and be like ‘never change. Whatever you do, just never never change’ and I would go into my dressing room after a meet and greet and just be like ‘what?’ They probably didn’t mean anything by it but could you imagine telling an 18 or 17-year-old to never change. Never become the person [you’re supposed to become].”
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“I was an angsty teenager that had a lot on my shoulders so I did want to change and I wanted to like wear different stuff. Try on things for size,” Duff, now 35, continued. “I think people make up who they want the version of yourself [to be] and then you’re like I’m actually not that or don’t want to be held responsible for changing if I want to.”
“It’s been tricky,” she added.
As for Duff’s future in music, the actress and singer said, “I do want to” return to the industry one day, noting that her husband happens to be “a very talented musician.”
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“I think that I will. I just don’t know right now,” she said, given her busy work schedule and trying to spend time with her three young kids.
“Taking more time away from [the kids] seems like something I couldn’t really wrap my head around. But I missed that version of myself,” she continued. “And I definitely think that I have more to do in that department. I just don’t know when.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Duff reveals more behind-the-scenes information about her deal at Hollywood Records, and chats about being a mom and acting on set of “How I Met Your Father”, which is currently streaming new season 2 episodes weekly on Hulu.