Miley Cyrus got naked in more ways than one for her provocative "Wrecking Ball" video. The 20-year-old "We Can't Stop" singer made headlines earlier this week for going completely au naturel in the edgy, Terry Richardson-directed clip — but she says the physical nudity is nothing compared to what she exposed emotionally.
"I think the video is much more. If people get past the point I make, and you actually look at me, you can tell I look more broken than even the song sounds," she told Elvis Duran during the Sept. 11 broadcast of his Z100 radio program, Elvis Duran and the Morning Show. "The song is a pop ballad that everyone can relate to; everyone has felt that feeling at some point."
Of the video — which features the former Disney starlet crying, straddling a wrecking ball, and licking a sledgehammer, all while nude or nearly nude — she added, "If people can take their minds off the obvious and go into their imagination and see what the video really means, it is so vulnerable. Actually, if you look at my eyes I look more sad than actually my voice sounds on the record."
Filming the clip, which racked up a record-breaking 19.3 million views on Vevo in just 24 hours, took a lot out of her. "It was a lot harder to do the video than it was to record the song," she told Duran. "It was much more of an emotional experience."
Cyrus admits she was nervous about releasing the single, but not because of the controversial video. "I was actually panicking last night because I felt like, for me, with 'We Can't Stop,' there was all this anticipation and all this time to build up to this one single," she explained. "I have been so busy right now with 'We Can't Stop' still doing what it's doing and catching fire not just in the states but all over the world…I feel like I have so much going on."
That said, she doesn't plan to slow down anytime soon. Nor does she plan to let her critics dictate her next move.
"Anything I do becomes such a big deal," she said. "I'm just having fun. Whatever people label it as, it doesn't really matter. I always want to switch it up."
