Who did Natalia Dyer play in Hannah Montana? Stranger Things star opens up on first film role

On August 12, Stranger Things star Natalia Dyer appeared on episode 181 of Season 9 of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which also featured Megan Thee Stallion as a guest host. In the episode, the actress opened up about her character Nancy Wheeler’s love triangle in the show.

Later, Dyer also talked about her debut in Hollywood with 2009’s Hannah Montana: The Movie when host Jimmy Fallon displayed a picture of the actress from the movie's 2009 red carpet premiere. Dyer added that her work on Stranger Things was not her first big acting role.

Seeing the picture, the actress said:

“Yes, that was my first red carpet. And, obviously, I dressed myself. Thank you, Betsey Johnson, at the Green Hills Mall.”

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What did Natalia Dyer say about her role in Hannah Montana: The Movie?

During her conversation with Jimmy Fallon and Megan Thee Stallion, Natalia Dyer (27) reminisced on how she got the role in the Hannah Montana film. She recalled:

“So, I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. Yeah, so, it's not -- It wasn't a huge film town at that time. And then this -- You know, this sort of major production was rolling through. It was a big deal. Everyone was very excited. And, yeah, they had these two British, like, twin roles that they decided to cast locally. And, somehow, I --They said, ‘We want a girl from Nashville, Tennessee, to be British.’”

In the film, a 14-year-old Natalia Dyer portrayed Clarissa Granger, one of the two daughters of a journalist named Oswald Granger (played by Peter Gunn). The journalist served as the primary antagonist of the movie, as he attempted to figure out that the secret identity of Hannah Montana was Miley Stewart (portrayed by Miley Cyrus).

In Hannah Montana: The Movie, Natalie Dyer’s character and her twin sister were superfans of the fictional singer. The actress further spoke about this role with PEOPLE Magazine in 2020. She said:

“I don't know how much that directly impacted my popularity. I don't feel like I ever really talked about a lot of the stuff I was doing when I was in school. It was just kind of, yeah, that happened.”

Meanwhile, earlier in May, the 27-year-old Nashville native told Cosmopolitan how she believes that she did not do a good job with her British accent in the film. She said:

“It was kind of crazy, but very exciting. I played a British person. I don’t think I did the accent justice, but then I don’t know if I can do a great British accent now. At the time it was so new to me; I was young and my mum was on set.”

However, the Hannah Montana film provided Natalia Dyer with the necessary experience to appear in another Disney film, The Greening of Whitney Brown, in 2011. Following brief appearances in such films, Dyer was cast in independent films such as 2013's Don't Let Me Go and 2014's After Darkness. Following that, she played Nancy Wheeler in Stranger Things, her most well-known role to date.