How 'Hannah Montana' inspired Sabrina Carpenter’s career: 'I want to do that'

Sabrina Carpenter remembers the moment that she realized what she wanted to do with her life.

Back in 2006, when she was just six years old, Carpenter watched the premiere episode of “Hannah Montana,” a music-heavy comedy series starring Miley Cyrus as Miley Stewart, a teenager living a double life. Unbeknownst to her classmates and peers from her ordinary daily life, in addition to being a regular small town girl, Miley was also Hannah Montana, an internationally-famous pop star.

For the future Disney Channel personality, watching the episode proved to be somewhat of an aha moment.

“I remember being six years old and watching the pilot episode of ‘Hannah Montana’ and being like, ‘I want to do that,'” Carpenter recounted during a recent interview with In The Know’s Gibson Johns. “‘I want to sing, and I want to act, and I want to dance. I want to do all those things.'”

“I didn’t even know at six years old what that meant in my head,” she added.

Eight years later, Carpenter would star on “Girl Meets World,” which may not have infused as much music into the role as “Hannah Montana” had for Cyrus, but it still catapulted her to the level of stardom she had dreamed of from that young age, giving her the perfect platform to launch her music career.

Since starting on “Girl Meets World,” Carpenter has released an EP and four studio albums, featuring hits like “Thumbs,” “Sue Me” and “Why,” all of which have all racked up over a hundred million streams on Spotify. The multi-hyphenate performer has become a genuine pop star while continuing to pursue high-profile acting roles in films like “The Hate U Give” and the new Netflix hit “Work It,” and it’s her ability to have both music and acting as viable outlets for herself that keeps her going.

“I really do feel more balanced by the fact that I’m able — and [I’m] so lucky that I’m able — to do both things. I don’t really know how and why I’ve been so lucky to be able to do both,” she said, bashfully. “It’s something that’s not easy to balance, and so the fact that my life has given me the capability to balance them has just been something that I’m very lucky for.”

“I will always say this: If I go to a concert, I want to be on stage more than anything. I’m so jealous of whoever’s on stage. And if I go to the movie theater and I see a movie, I’m so jealous of the people in that movie. I just want to be in the movie,” Carpenter, 21, added. “As long as I always feel that longing for whatever it is, then I know that it’s something I want to continue to put my heart into, and I’m just so happy.”

For her latest project, “Work It,” Carpenter was able to channel both of these passions — and then some — by filling a multitude of roles on set: In addition to starring as Quinn in the teen dance film, she also served as executive producer and co-penned a song, the Stargate-produced “Let Me Move You,” for its end credits.

“I definitely think that [the song] fits the movie so perfectly, and I’m just so excited that I got to do one of my favorite things and incorporate it into one of my other favorite things, so it was pretty special,” Carpenter told ITK of creating the song for “Work It.”

Carpenter’s co-star, Liza Koshy, who was also part of the interview, gushed that her “favorite part [of ‘Work It’] is when her name is in the credits, like, five times.”

“Take a shot for every role Sabrina took on doing this movie,” she joked. “Not only was she EP, singer-songwriter and actress, but she was also the warmth and the hug on set you got to arrive to. She made everybody feel so comfortable, and grounded, and like this is a safe place to have fun and experiment, and throw out some improv, and be confident in your dance moves. […] This is my first movie, and to have her experience there, and her reassurance there [was] the best thing in the world.”

“Work It” is available to stream on Netflix now.

Listen to In The Know’s full interview with Sabrina Carpenter and Liza Koshy below:

If you enjoyed this interview, check out In The Know’s recent interview with Hannah Bronfman here.

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