Why it’s time for every­one to start embrac­ing Miley Cyrus, the actor

“Fuck yeah! Stoked to be in Woody Allen’s first series!!!!! 1960zzzz here I cum­m­mm.” This was Miley Cyrus last week announc­ing via her Insta­gram page that she’s been cast in a new Woody Allen TV show. This was not a prank – Woody Allen real­ly is cast­ing the for­mer Han­nah Mon­tana star in a peri­od piece, and the news deserves every one of those excla­ma­tion marks. Set in the 1960s, the six-part Ama­zon TV series is cer­tain­ly a tan­ta­lis­ing prospect, not least because it means audi­ences will get a chance to see Cyrus doing more of what she does best: acting.

Cyrus is a nat­u­ral­ly gift­ed per­former who spent her ear­ly teens as the face of Disney’s high­est-rat­ed TV show, and her late teens demand­ing to be known for more. The head­line-grab­bing stunts – the weed smok­ing, the VMAs per­for­mance – were smart moves to sev­er ties from a kids’ enter­tain­ment mar­ket she had con­quered and out­grown. An unpre­dictable and divi­sive per­son­al­i­ty, Cyrus is an artist who refus­es to be pigeon­holed, and we’re ful­ly expect­ing her to infuse some much need­ed anar­chy into the vet­er­an director’s rote style.

Not every­one is quite sold on the idea. Yet the inevitable social media back­lash was ful­ly pred­i­cat­ed on twerk­ing and pro­trud­ing-tongue self­ies, rather than a mea­sured eval­u­a­tion of Han­nah Mon­tana: The Movie or any of her more recent on-screen per­for­mances, for that mat­ter – last Decem­ber alone she was the high­light of two star-stud­ded ensem­ble come­dies, A Very Mur­ray Christ­mas and The Night Before.

Pri­or to this was 2011’s So Under­cov­er, a so under­writ­ten spy com­e­dy in which Cyrus plays a sea­soned FBI agent teach­ing her­self col­lege slang to blend in with ordi­nary teens. Despite the laboured premise, she man­ages to bring a cer­tain nuance to the role, riff­ing on how in real life she was also robbed of a reg­u­lar child­hood. In 2012’s LOL she’s brash and dynam­ic in a sto­ry lum­bered with inex­plic­a­ble plot turns (her BFF has cyber­sex by dis­guis­ing an uncooked chick­en as her vagi­na). When her moth­er, played by Demi Moore, angri­ly stum­bles across ​“joints and con­doms” lying in the house, it speaks to a young star prepar­ing a dras­tic makeover.

Cyrus’ com­ic tim­ing and ener­getic pres­ence not only make her ear­ly movies worth watch­ing, but leave you wish­ing she had bet­ter mate­r­i­al to work with – which is pre­cise­ly why she’s worked so hard at sub­vert­ing expec­ta­tions since 2013. In A Very Mur­ray Christ­mas, direc­tor Sofia Cop­po­la dis­sects the pop poten­tial of Cyrus and places it cen­tre-stage – in Bill Murray’s imag­i­na­tion, where the 23-year-old arrives by sleigh with George Clooney (“You brought Miley Cyrus?” ​“It’s her sleigh!”) It’s here she per­forms an entranc­ing solo ren­di­tion of ​‘Silent Night’ that per­fect­ly encap­su­lates the Christ­mas vari­ety show aes­thet­ic. No irony, just pal­pa­ble emo­tion from an improb­a­ble source.

Like­wise, Cyrus’ star pow­er is an actu­al plot point of The Night Before. Ref­er­ences to ​‘Wreck­ing Ball’ begin as a run­ning gag, but like all irk­some­ly catchy hits, it won’t go away, and cul­mi­nates in a duet with Joseph Gor­don-Levitt. Cyrus keeps Seth Rogen and Gor­don-Levitt on their toes – ​“Call me Han­nah,” she insists, snag­ging the film’s best line and indi­cat­ing she’s ready to move on.

For Cyrus, that time is now. She appears to be emerg­ing from an exper­i­men­tal phase primed and ready to take on new chal­lenges, and look­ing for adven­tur­ous film­mak­ers to guide her. She may still have a point to prove, but unless Allen’s TV show ends up being the cat­a­stro­phe he has promised it will be, even the most hard­ened Cyrus cyn­ic will sure­ly be tempt­ed to tune in.