Jason Earles wanted to create a “safe environment” for everyone when he was on Disney Channel.
The 47-year-old actor was considerably older than Miley Cyrus when he took on the role of her older brother Jackson Stewart on the late 2000s sitcom ‘Hannah Montana’ and following the issues discussed in ‘Quiet On Set’ – which raised allegations of a toxic and dangerous culture at rival kids’ network Nickelodeon around the same time – has admitted that he always wanted to be there for any of his castmates if they ever had a problem.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “I just try to create an environment where we’re all sort of equals and we’re all watching out for each other. I think on both ‘Kickin It’ and ‘Hannah’, it was really well known that if you have any issues, or if anything was uncomfortable, just say something.
“Whether it was to me, or our showrunners, just creating that environment where it was safe to speak out was goal number one, for sure.”
Jason was 29 when he took on the part of 16-year-old Jackson, and Miley was 13 when she signed on to play the title role alongside Emily Osment, now 32, and Mitchell Musso, now 33, as her best friends Lilly Truscott and Oliver Oken.
‘Hannah Montana’ launched ‘Flowers’ hitmaker Miley, 31, to stratospheric success as a teenager, and over the course of four seasons, she played a schoolgirl who had a secret identity as a world-famous pop star.
The series – which also starred Miley’s real-life father Billy Ray Cyrus as her on-screen dad – spawned a movie, several soundtracks, and a concert tour as it became a billion-dollar franchise for Disney.
Jason “wouldn’t say no” to the idea of a reboot and teased that “maybe” something will happen at some point in the future.
He said: “I wouldn’t say no. I think there’s some ideas floating around that are good, and when the time is right then maybe something will happen.”
