By David Germain
The Associated Press
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Singing was the last thing on Miley Cyrus’ mind in “The Last Song.”
Other than a brief sing-along to a tune on a car radio, her character doesn’t do any crooning, something Cyrus deliberately avoided with her first lead in a live-action film that doesn’t feature musical alter-ego Hannah Montana.
“I didn’t want to sing in the film. We sang in the car that once, but that doesn’t really count. I didn’t want to do a performance thing,” said Cyrus, who also contributes two songs to the soundtrack but figures she wants to keep singing and acting separate from now on. “I’d like to stay away from music in films and do a little something less obvious,” Cyrus said.