Hilary Duff Revealed The Devastating Side Of Playing Lizzie McGuire

If you ask any girl who came of age in the 2000s who their role model was growing up, you will likely get a unanimous answer: Lizzie McGuire. Played by Hilary Duff, Lizzie McGuire was one of the only few fictional characters on TV who showed what it was really like to navigate the awkwardness of teenhood — from buying your first bra, to being forced by your mom to wear an ugly sweater on picture day, to getting the nervous sweats talking to your crush.

Looking back, Duff's portrayal played a significant role in Lizzie's relatability. She was the embodiment of the girl next door — someone you would want to befriend even if she wasn't Disney's darling at one point. "I love Lizzie McGuire. That's my character. That's my girl," she told Access Hollywood of her part (via NBC News). "What was really cool about the show is that everyone goes through that stage of life feeling uncomfortable with themselves and not really knowing who they are, trying to fit in, trying to find out who you want to be, where you want to be."

Sixty-five episodes and a blockbuster hit later, Duff had to say goodbye to the character who became everyone's best friend. For her, it was a chance to show everyone what else she was capable of. "I wanted them to know more about me personally instead of the characters that they might know me as," she told CBS News. Unfortunately, escaping the character's shadow proved easier said than done. To this day, many still see her as good 'ol Lizzie.

Make no mistake: Hilary Duff had the time of her life portraying Lizzie McGuire. But even though she only played the character for two years, it took her much longer than that to break free from it. Post-Disney, she had a tough time nabbing other roles because directors only saw her through Lizzie-colored lenses. "I was like, 'I'm me! I'm Hilary, not that person. That's a made-up person," the actor told Bustle. "It was a desire to be seen as a person outside of a character." 

At one point, Duff almost wished she was never associated with the show at all. "I really didn't want to be Lizzie McGuire anymore," she admitted on the "Good Guys" podcast. "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. I thought music was going to be a good way to reintroduce myself."

Duff did launch a solo music career and released wildly successful albums. It was then that she realized the impact Lizzie had on her life. "Maybe [at] 24, 25, I was like, "Oh, I love Lizzie, and I love all that she did for me, and I get it. I get it all,'" she shared with Harper's Bazaar. "But it just took me a moment to come back to her and accept that."

If you find yourself clamoring for a "Lizzie McGuire" reboot, know that it's also what Hilary Duff's dreams are made of. In fact, it almost happened in 2020, but the project fell through when she and Disney had diverging opinions on what the modern-day Lizzie should be like. "She had to be 30 years old doing 30-year-old things," she explained to Women's Health, insinuating that Disney wanted to keep things more PG. "She didn't need to be doing bong rips and having one-night stands all the time, but it had to be authentic. I think they got spooked."

In an interview with Cosmopolitan, she even gave a sneak peek of the story the scrapped reboot was supposed to tell. "My character was moving back home with her parents because she caught her soon-to-be fiancé cheating on her, and she was falling flat on her face at the moment and being like, 'I need to pivot because everything that I thought was wasn't, and I'm turning 30. What the f***?'" she dished.

But Duff isn't closing her doors to stepping into Lizzie's shoes again someday, recognizing that interest in a reboot will never wane. "I think there's always a possibility there," she told The Cut. "And even if she's 40, I don't think people care. It's always going to be somewhat interesting to people to see where she ended up."