'Hannah Montana' Star Recalls Awkward Talk With Disney Execs After Lying About His Age

The actor, now 49, spent much of the show's premiere season "desperately afraid that I was going to be fired."

As he and his cast mates mark a “Hannah Montana” milestone, actor Jason Earles is opening up about his audition process for the Disney Channel series.

Appearing on “Best of Both Our Worlds: The Official, Unofficial Hannah Montana Podcast” last week, Earles shared the “big secret” he’d initially kept from Disney executives before he landed the role of Jackson Stuart, the older brother of Miley Cyrus’ character, Miley Stewart, in 2005.

“I was desperately afraid that I was going to be fired and recast ... when I auditioned for the show, I lied to them and told them I was 18 years old,” recalled the actor, who was actually 28 at the time of his audition. “It was another reason I almost didn’t audition for the show because I was like, ‘I’m too old. The character’s 16, nobody’s going to buy it.’”

Earles said his concerns were heightened by the fact that he’d worked with the show’s casting director, Lisa London, on an earlier project, when he presented himself as being 19.

While the actor succeeded in convincing the “Hannah Montana” creative team that he was youthful enough for the part, his real age was eventually revealed midway through production on the show’s premiere season, which aired on Disney Channel in 2006.