There are actors who sing and singers who act, but throughout pop history few entertainers have successfully balanced those twin careers.
Neither could Hilary Duff, though not due to lack of effort.
While her career as a pop diva skyrocketed – she released two platinum albums and a best-selling greatest-hits disc in just three years – the former Disney child star found her acting career stalling. Despite her considerable star wattage, Hollywood had difficulty seeing Duff beyond her past sugary sweet roles and good girl persona (no rehab or pantyless partying here).
“It always shocks me the lack of openness, the lack of imagination that some casting directors have,” Duff, 19, says in her girlish voice, sitting in a back corner of one of her favorite restaurant haunts, brunet hair peeking out of a black suede cap.
“I would read a script and be so in love with that, and someone would be like, ‘Hilary Duff? Oh no, we don’t want her for that.”‘ As bad scripts and rejections kept coming, Duff decided to stop the balancing act and put 100 percent into her music career.
Working again with songwriter Kara DioGuardi, she plunged into recording “Dignity,” which has just been released. It’s a club-oriented record filled with pulsating grooves, but also tackles some of the more serious issues she’s faced since her last record, including a breakup with Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden and her parents’ split.
“Every experience that I had for the last two years, they were certain things that made me want to write about in song,” says Duff, who co-wrote all but one song on the disc – the first time she has written so extensively for a CD.
“I really got to have fun. It’s a new side of me and part of me. All the songs are so self-explanatory. It was very liberating – writing it is like a therapy session.”
At first, it was hard for Duff, who admits to growing up “cautious,” wary of putting her public life on display.
But eventually, Duff decided to channel her feelings on “Dignity”: “‘What am I hiding for?”‘ she asked herself. “I think it’s easier to open yourself up through music.”
While Duff was able to express different emotions on record, she found it hard in her acting career, mainly because most of the offered roles kept her in “Lizzie McGuire” mode, with family friendly films like “Cheaper By the Dozen.”
“I really didn’t want to do that,” says Duff, still frustrated at the thought. “I wanted to challenge myself and do something unexpected, and also wanted to be excited about it.”
She even began to doubt her acting skills. “‘Nobody thinks I’m good, nobody thinks I can do anything different,”‘ she recalls thinking. “I felt kind of in a weird place. That’s when I started making my records.”
It wasn’t until she was a month deep into recording “Dignity” and totally focused on her recording career that a film project stirred her interest: “War, Inc.,” written by John Cusack, who also stars in it. It was Cusack who sought Duff out, but she almost passed – he wanted her to play a pop singer.
“Before, I definitely considered myself more of a singer. I think definitely since I did the movie I was like, ‘I’m an actress.”‘
