Black Mirror: How Miley Cyrus’ Ashley O Character Mirrors Her New Persona

In 2020, Miley Cyrus adopted a much different persona than her fans are normally used to seeing from her. In fact, her new alternative style strongly mirrors that of her Black Mirror character Ashley O from season 5, episode 3, “Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too.” While the fictional pop star may not have started the episode as a punk rock star, she certainly transformed into one by the story’s end, which may have inspired a change in the singer’s real life.

Charlie Brooker’s dystopian television series is known for its social and political commentary that traditionally revolves around the concept that technology will bring about the end of humanity. As it has progressed and its popularity has risen, more major celebrities have taken on portraying some of the show’s most iconic characters. For example, season 1, episode 2, “Fifteen Million Merits”, featured Daniel Kaluuya prior to his acclaimed role in Jordan Peele’s Get Out. By the end of season 2, Jon Hamm found himself portraying one of the most disturbing characters in the Black Mirror universe in “White Christmas”. Once Netflix acquired the program, season 3, episode 1, “Nosedive”, starred Bryce Dallas Howard, who was then followed by Jesse Plemons in season 4’s “USS Callister”, Topher Grace in season 5’s “Smithereens”, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in “Striking Vipers”. While each of these actors are recognizable in their own right, the news about Miley Cyrus’s role in the series swept through the internet with hesitation as well as excitement.

“Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too” stars Miley Cyrus as Ashley O, a young popstar who is being controlled and manipulated by her aunt into having a musical career in pop music. Following the death of her parents, Ashley is forced to abide by her rules or suffer the consequences, which she does. After vocalizing her rebellion, her aunt poisons her with pills and forces her into a medically-induced coma. With her sights set on making Ashley O a posthumous star, Jack and Rachel assist her in overthrowing her aunt, leading Ashley to start a new career as a punk rock musician, living out the life she truly wanted as her most authentic self.

Over the past several months, Miley Cyrus has undergone a major change in her appearance and musical stylings. The singer has been outspoken about her desire to break free from the control of her musical label, Disney persona, the confines of femininity, as well as various toxic relationships. She has vocalized her distress through her music. Most notably, the song “Wrecking Ball” details her inability to break through and experience true connection with someone that she cares about. Cyrus experienced this relationship solely at surface level, with several transformations, she has finally broken free from the control of those around her and has become her true self.

On TikTok, Cyrus has become famous for her cover of Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass.” Debbie Harry, lead singer of Blondie, is often regarded as one of the original women in the punk movement during the 1970s. She helped define a generation of women who defied gender norms and social expectations. While singing this powerful ballad, Cyrus rocks dark colored clothing, a contemporary shag mullet, and dark makeup, a notable difference from how she’s presented herself in the past. While it’s not possible for Black Mirror to have foreshadowed this change, it is possible that Ashley O and her story influenced it. As the series is known for its title, which sometimes causes people to recognize who they really are as well as their dependency on technology, it could have that same impact on its actors.

Miley Cyrus was cast as Ashley O for a reason; Charlie Brooker doesn’t do anything without a true purpose. Perhaps Cyrus saw herself in the character and auditioned for the role knowing she could bring her actual experience in the industry to the part. It is arguably one of her most captivating performances, and reads of true, raw emotion that’s undoubtedly the star’s own. While Ashley O was able to break free from her aunt in a matter of hours after years of suffering, it may have taken Cyrus a bit longer to grow comfortable enough to become the alternative punk musician she is today. As the cliché goes, “life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” It is likely that, under the circumstances of portraying Ashley O in Black Mirror, Miley Cyrus’s life imitated the art with which she found common ground.

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