Miley Cyrus has been out giving some of the most interesting interviews of her young career, all to promote her first non-Hannah Montana film, The Last Song. Sidenote: Greg Kinnear plays Miley’s dad in the film, and I want to know how badly Kinnear needed money to do it. Does he have gambling debts or something? Anyhoodle, in most interviews, Miley has been yammering on in her lovesick way about her boyfriend and costar Liam Hemsworth. First we found out that the two of them are “deeper than normal people”. Then we found out that Miley loved Liam because, unlike everyone else in her life, Liam doesn’t need Miley to “make him famous”.

In this new interview with Hollywood Life, Miley stops talking about her boyfriend for two seconds to mouth off about how she’s going to be a real actress, and how she has to be “careful, in a sense, to not lose who I am or the Miley Cyrus factor, by going to do other characters.” So basically she wants to keep milking the Hannah Montana thing while simultaneously starting her “real” career. Sidenote: What is “The Miley Cyrus Factor” again? Talking like you’ve always got a big wad of gum in your mouth?

The Last Song is a big deal for Miley Cyrus. Not only is it a huge romantic movie, but it’s also her first real step away from Hannah Montana. “I’ve gone these last five years … with everyone telling me what to do,” she said at a press conference March 13. “Now it’s up to me, and what I think is right in my career, so I’m just going in my own direction.”

And part of that ‘new direction’ includes putting music on the back burner, and focusing on her career on the big screen!

“This film was the test for me to decide what I really wanted to do, and I love making movies,” she confessed. “That’s what I want to pursue. It’s not that I don’t love music. I love music. If every film could have music, I would do that. But I feel like I just need to get away from that for a little while. It’s my security blanket and I don’t want to always fall back on that.”

“I have to be careful, in a sense, to not lose who I am or the Miley Cyrus factor, by going to do other characters,” she said. “I still want [my fans] to know who I am, but I want to extend my audience. I want to continue to do what I love, but also give myself new challenges and not just be the same person, over and over.”

Miley also spilled the secret to knowing if a guy is right for her — it all depends on whether or not he can handle her crazy family!

“My parents are a little loco,” Miley admits. “If you love me and my family, which has five kids, my mom, my dad, my grandma and about 10,000 dogs … then you’re good. You’re a keeper.”

But even though Miley loves making movies, don’t expect another big-screen version of Hannah Montana anytime soon… or ever.

“The Hannah Montana wig is out as soon as we finish that last episode,” Miley enthusiastically told reporters. “One will be in a museum and one will be burned, or something. I can’t put it on again. It’s just too much.”

[From Hollywood Life]

“My parents are a little loco” is the understatement of the year. When you put it in that context, I kind of think Liam deserves a medal for dating Miley. Not just dating her, but changing her for the better. Miley’s entitled-teenager craziness has been much more subdued since meeting and falling for Liam, and she seems to be maturing (for the better) before our eyes. Here’s hoping that she loses that annoying “Miley Cyrus factor” and actually tries to make it as a genuine actress.

She has such a pretty little profile:

Miley at the Oscars on March 7, 2010. Credit: WENN.