Jason Earles, cast member of Disney's Hannah Montana, is not afraid to be typecast in comedic roles.  After a year of playing Miley Cyrus' onscreen older brother, comedy comes easily for this California-born actor.

"Biggest thing about typecasting is casting, which means you're working.  I would much rather be a working actor than a proud actor who never gets the opportunity to do anything because they think they're better than whatever the opportunities are," the Hannah Montana actor said.

On TV, he plays Jackson Stewart, the only brother of Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana, who typically provides comic relief to the show with his one-liners. In real life, however, he has four siblings, consisting of three boys and a girl.

"I'm sort of a smaller guy, so when growing up you have two choices: either get pounded and fade off into oblivion or develop a sense of humor and hang with the big boys that way…That's actually one of the things that drew me to acting because it's the one thing I did that no one else in my family did.  So I knew I would get attention if I were in a play or a performance," Earles revealed.

Furthermore, Earles enjoys working with the cast of Hannah Montana, especially Miley Cyrus, who now has a very close friendship with him.

"It's like this great big, fun, slightly dysfunctional family.  In Season 1, there were a couple of episodes where Miley and I didn't get along at all.  We spent a lot of time pushing each other's buttons."

"Miley saw what it was like to have that kind of person around and she decided she didn't want to be like that," Earles said referring to an irritating guest star that made the difference.  "So she started to take the work very seriously, and from that point on we really have become like brother and sister.  We text each other and call each other and go to each other with advice about things."


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Houston Chronicle
(Image courtesy of Yahoo)