Jason Earles Breaks Silence on His Hannah Montana Secret
Jason Earles just admitted to one of the best kept secrets in Disney Channel history and honestly it's kind of incredible it stayed hidden as long as it did.
Earles played Jackson Stewart — the goofy teenage older brother on "Hannah Montana" — and he just revealed on a new podcast that when he auditioned for the role he told Disney he was 18. He was 28. The character was supposed to be 16.
He is currently 48 years old. Let that sink in for a second.
How It Happened
Earles opened up about the whole thing on the debut episode of "Best of Both Our Worlds: The Official, Unofficial Hannah Montana Podcast," and the story is genuinely funny in retrospect.
He almost didn't even audition because he figured nobody would buy a grown man playing a teenager. But he went for it anyway, lied about his age, made it through multiple rounds, and booked the role. Disney cast a 28-year-old to play a 16-year-old and didn't notice.
For half a season.
About halfway through filming the first season, a senior network executive showed up on set and pulled Earles aside. The conversation went about as awkwardly as you'd expect.
"He was like, 'Hey, so, you're 28.' And I was like, 'I am,'" Earles recalled.
It Gets Better
The age thing wasn't even the only secret the executive knew about. Earles was also married — and had been quietly bringing his wife to set, apparently making out with her between takes without anyone connecting the dots.
The executive knew that too.
"He's like, 'So, you're married?' And I was like, 'Yeah, that girl that I keep making out with — yeah, that's my wife,'" Earles said. The executive then asked if there was anything else he should know. Earles confirmed he had no kids. The executive's response was essentially — good, let's keep it that way for a while.
So for the next six years of the show, Earles was ordered to keep his entire personal life completely under wraps. No talking about his age. No acknowledging his marriage publicly. Just pretend to be a teenager on Disney Channel while pushing 30 and keeping a whole secret adult life offscreen.
He managed it — mostly. Though apparently fans would occasionally walk up to him and his wife at dinner and congratulate her on raising such a fine young son.
"I remember going to dinner with my wife at the time and people coming up and saying, 'You must be so proud of your son,'" Earles said. "And I was like, 'Well, all right. Sex is off the table tonight.'"
The Bigger Picture Here
"Hannah Montana" ran from 2006 to 2011 and made Miley Cyrus a household name. Earles was part of the core cast the entire run — and for most of that time, the viewing audience had absolutely no idea they were watching a man in his thirties pretend to be a high schooler.
"Hannah Montana" premiered on Disney Channel on March 24, 2006, meaning the show is approaching its 20th anniversary this week. Two decades later, its cast is still finding new ways to make headlines.
In fairness, he pulled it off. Nobody noticed. The show was a massive hit. And Disney, once they found out the truth, clearly decided the situation wasn't worth blowing up over.
Sometimes the lie just works out.
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