Hilary Duff wants the world to know that Lizzie McGuire is just one of the many characters that she's played, not her identity.
In an interview with Bustle on Wednesday, Jan. 19, the How I Met Your Father actress, 34, shared her experience playing the titular role on the hit Disney Channel show and how it continues to shape the way the world perceives her to this day.
According to Hilary, part of the reason why they're so closely linked together is because her and Lizzie's personalities slowly blended together while creating the show. "I was too young to do a character dive on Lizzie," she explained. "I think I was just playing myself. And I really related to that girl. She was me, and I was her, and that was that."
However, as she got older and began to develop her own interests, being constantly compared to the lighthearted teen began to wear her down.
"I was like, ‘I'm me! I'm Hilary, not that person. That's a made-up person,'" she said. "It was a desire to be seen as a person outside of a character. By the time I was 18, I was like, ‘If I hear that name [Lizzie McGuire] one more time!'"
When asked if she ever felt pigeonholed into certain roles because of the precedent set by the bubbly character, Hilary replied, "Of course. I still am." She recounted that she would often receive rejections at auditions and callbacks under the excuse of "'We know her as Lizzie McGuire.'"
Despite the constant association, Hilary still holds a lot of love for the character. In August 2019, it was announced that she would reprise the role of Lizzie for a new Disney+ series, which unfortunately fell through in December 2020. As she said in her latest interview, "I really don't want to talk about the version that almost was or could be."
At long last, Hilary has come to "peace" with her relationship with Lizzie.
"I've obviously had to think about [Lizzie] a lot. The lines get so blurry between me and her, and I think they are for the world, still. And they probably always will be. I think just accepting that has brought me a lot of peace," she shared. "That doesn't mean I don't have a backbone, and I don't have a drive, and I don't have a vision. I have all of those things."
She continued, "Now I'm like, ‘I love her.' She's the greatest. She made everyone feel good."