John Cena just learned one of the strangest pieces of Hannah Montana trivia, and his reaction was immediate disbelief. Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote his new film Little Brother, the WWE icon reflected on his 2010 guest appearance on the Disney Channel hit and joked that he never actually worked with Miley Cyrus. Instead, he remembered sharing scenes with “some kid” from the cast — only to find out that the actor in question, Jason Earles, was actually the exact same age as him.
“I worked with some kid. Some young man, some kid who was on the show, 10 years old,” Cena joked. Fallon then informed him that Earles, who played Miley Stewart’s older brother Jackson, was around 33 when they filmed the episode.
“Shut up! That’s not true. That is misinformation,” Cena replied. “Are you serious? Are you sure about that?”
Even after Fallon confirmed the story, Cena remained unconvinced.
“Not at all, I wasn’t aware until right now,” he said. “I still think I’m being punked. There’s no way that’s true. Come on, look at that. I know I’m big-boned, but that’s a kid. Well, you learn something new every day.”
The revelation has become a hot topic among fans following Earles’s own recent comments on the Best of Both Our Worlds podcast, launched in conjunction with the Hannah Montana 20th anniversary celebrations. During the episode, Earles admitted that he shaved a decade off his age during the audition process.
“I lied to them and told them I was 18 years old,” Earles said. In reality, he was 28 when he landed the role of Jackson, the goofy older brother of Miley Cyrus’ character.
He later recalled a network executive approaching him during the first season and saying, “Hey, so you’re 28,” before asking if there were “any more secrets” they should know.
According to Earles, executive producer Steven Peterman eventually thanked him for keeping quiet. “Thank you so much for lying to us because we would have gotten nervous… and we would have recast you,” Earles recalled him saying.
Cena guest-starred as himself in Season 4’s “Love That Lets Go,” appearing inside one of Jackson’s dreams and delivering an Attitude Adjustment while trying to motivate him to study. At the time, both actors were roughly 33 years old — and born just days apart in April 1977.
