Hilary Duff - Television Tropes & Idioms

The gold standard for good teen role models in the 2000s.

Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, fashion designer and book author (1997-present). Inspired by Britney Spears and her sister when she was a child to become an actor, singer and songwriter, with her sister.

After working in local theater plays and television commercials in her childhood, Duff gained fame for playing the title role in the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. She subsequently ventured into motion pictures and has many successful films to her credit, including Casper Meets Wendy, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Cheaper by the Dozen, A Cinderella Story and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. She has recently appeared in According to Greta and Stay Cool. As of March 2012 she's looking forward to the release of the movie She Wants Me. She's also working on a new book in her book series, a new album and Duff also plans to release a non-fiction book in 2012 based on children coping with divorce.

Duff has since expanded her repertoire into pop music with the release of three RIAA-certified platinum albums: Metamorphosis, her debut studio album, was certified triple platinum and was supplemented by two more platinum albums, Hilary Duff and Most Wanted. In 2007, she released her third studio album, Dignity, which was certified gold later that year and spawned singles "With Love" — her highest charting U.S. single to date — and "Stranger". Best of Hilary Duff, a compilation of her greatest hits, was released in the last quarter of 2008 producing her a third #1 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs with the single "Reach Out". Duff has sold thirteen million records worldwide; her contributions to the music industry have gained her commercial success while Billboard ranked her the 69th Artist of the 2000s decade.

She is also a Twitterer

. Married with a baby boy; Luca Cruz Comrie was born on March 20, 2012

Releases and Tours:

Albums:

Santa Clause Lane (2002)
Metamorphosis (2003)
Hilary Duff (2004)
Most Wanted (2005)
Dignity (2007)
Best of Hilary Duff (2008)
TBA (2012)

Tours:

Metamorphosis (2003)
Most Wanted (2004-2005)
Still Most Wanted (2005-2006)
Dignity (2007-2008)

Music D V Ds

All Access Pass (2003)
Girl Can Rock (2004)
Learning To Fly (2004)

Books:

Elixir (2010)
Devoted (2011)

Filmography:

Casper Meets Wendy (1998)
Cadet Kelly (2002)
The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)
Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)
A Cinderella Story (2004)
Raise Your Voice (2004)
The Perfect Man (2005)
Cheaper By The Dozen 2 (2005)
Material Girls (2006)
War INC (2008)
What Goes Up (2009)
According To Greta (2009)
Beauty and the Briefcase (2010)
Stay Cool (2010)
Bloodworth (2010)
She Wants Me (2012)

Tropes she exhibits:

Adorkable: Just watch her behind the scenes of the Metamorphosis tour for all the dorkiness.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: She has a song dedicated to how rebellious and attractive Mr. James Dean was and how a suitor/stalker/Random hanger on could never compare to his brilliance.
- "Danger" also discusses this phenomenon.
All Women Love Shoes: Behind the scenes of the Metamorphosis tour she mentions how if she see's a clothing store she HAS to go in and check it out!
Anti-Love Song: "Little Voice"
I know I sound insane
Like I'm playing games
cuz all I really want is you
But there's some things a girl won't do
- "Beat Of My Heart" also plays with this.
And Now For Something Completely Different: Starts rapping in "Metamorphosis" the song after an album of Pop/rock.
Album Title Drop: Clearly in "Dignity" and "Metamorphosis"
Belly Dancer: She plays one in her video for Stranger and often incorporates bellydancing moves into her live concerts.
Break Up Song: In a variety of ways: Happy, Outside Of You, I Wish, The Getaway, Who's That Girl, Stranger, Beat Of My Heart, Break My Heart, Holiday, Jericho, Hide Away
Break the Cutie: 05, 06, 07 were tough years for her, broke up with her long term boyfriend, who went on to have a kid with a new woman only weeks afterwards, her parents broke up and broke up badly, she dealt with stalkers and creepy people and had a lot of debate about how healthy she was and her weight.
Caught with Your Pants Down: Almost, but not quite. There are pictures of her and her then-boyfriend now-husband Mike Comrie from the window of their hotel the day he proposed to her. First she is excited by the ring, then she appeared to bend over to thank him in the way every man wants to be thanked. Due to the angles he couldn't actually be seen with his pants down, but it was pretty obvious what was going on.
The Cutie
Cover Version: Our Lips Are Sealed (For A Cinderella Story), My Generation (At Most Wanted tour)
Darker and Edgier: Her music got darker in her self titled era, and her movies went way off the deep end in "War Inc" (Bringing the Sexy for the first time) and "According To Greta" (As far as character goes).
Dye Hard: Naturally a brunette, but has had her hair dyed blonde for a long time, but has had it dyed black and dark brown briefly, although she goes back and forth to what hair color she'd prefer currently.
Easter Egg: Used on her first and some versions of her second musical DVD's.
Exhort The Disc Jockey Song: "Wake Up" (As well as a Rockstar Song)
Give me a dancefloor/Give Me a DJ/Play me a record
Forget what they say
Epic Instrumental Opener: 30 second instrumental opening to "Happy" with obligatory symphony and off beat beat.
Follow Your Heart: "Fly", "Rock This World", "Girl Can Rock", "No Work, All Play", "Cry", "I Am", "Inner Strength", "Supergirl, "Come Clean", "Haters", "The Last Song", "Someones Watching Over Me", "Jericho".
Follow the Leader: Subverted with her musical career where she did the pop-rock / rock-lite thing before it was cool (starting in 02 going to 2005), and did the electric pop thing in 06 with Beat Of My Heart, way before it was accepted to had become popular (2008 or so).
- Also invented the Disney girls becoming singers thing starting with her then moving to Miley Cyrus and then Selena Gomez and and then Demi Lovato to present.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: "You roll me, you use me, you love and then" is a drug reference in a poppy song for pre teens and young teenagers. Doesn't make sense till you grow up. Much like Avril Lavigne's GCPTR.
Grief Song: "Someone's Watching Over Me"
Greatest Hits Album: Due to executive meddling mostly (Both times).
Heartbeat Soundtrack: Beat Of My Heart introduction.
Heroic RROD: Narrowly averted with her musical break after the "Dignity" era and her time out before "Dignity" came out.
- Her slower pace of work without coming to a complete stop during 2010 and 2011. With getting marriage and all also helped her avert this assumed trope.
Hotter and Sexier: Dignity mildly, but her music from Reach Out was quite quite raunchy (although only compared to her music from her Disney days.) And then of course, there was her role in War, Inc..
Idol Singer: Starting with her performances in The Lizzie McGuire Movie, until her last album, Best of Hilary Duff.
- Has decided to give it another go...
I Am Not Lizzie McGuire: Has yet to break out of this; her headlining films after she was done with the series have done spectacularly poorly at the box office to the point she has been relegated to straight-to-DVD fare and ABC Family movies.
I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Her character in the film Material Girls did this, and Played for Laughs.
Intercourse with You: Reach Out.
Lyrical Dissonance: "Dreamer" a song about a stalker and the media who hounds her constantly and is expressed singing wise very sarcastically, the background has "Bum bum bum, da da bum" and extremely happy background music with a smooth beat and chirpy background vocals.
Ms. Fanservice: See War, Inc..
New Sound Album: Dignity is this compared to Hilary Duff and Metamorphosis as she exploited the techno and electronic powers of pop music...and started songwriting the majority of the album for the first time.
Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: Metamorphosis (The Song) has acoustic, electronic, rap and rnb elements.
- Dignity is a mash up of dance beats, rock instruments, Bollywood/Indian music, trip pop and power pop.
One Woman Song: Australian Popstars winner Scott Cain's second album Roller Coaster includes a song called "Hilary Duff" (aka "I've Got A Crush On Hilary Duff").
Obsession Song: "Do You Want Me"
Past In The Rear View Mirror: "The Getaway"
The Rival: Lindsay Lohan back in the day. But given Lohan's position now, it's hard to believe she was ever any competition to Duff.
Rockstar Song: "Wake Up"
Could be in New York, maybe Hollywood and Vine, London, Paris, maybe Tokyo
Somethings goin on everywhere I go tonight
- And
  There's people talking/They talk about me/They know my name
  They think they know everything/But they don't know anything
  About me
- and "Haters".
Studio Chatter: Used in "Workin' It Out" amongst others on her first two albums.
Spiritual Successor: Hilary has so many successors, like Miley Cyrus (who is a big fan of Hilary), Bridgit Mendler (who has the same qualities and looks as Hilary), and even her channel's rival equivalent, Miranda Cosgrove (who is literally the network's answer to her) that to list all those who owe their success to Hilary would overload this page.
- Selena Gomez deserves a special mention. She was discovered after auditioning for the lead role in a spin-off of Lizzie McGuire. She actually did get the role, but the project was cancelled. Even so, she later did get to play a counterpart to a Hilary Duff character in Another Cinderella Story.
Spoiled Sweet: How she is in life.
Star Making Role: Her role as Lizzie McGuire became her gateway to other projects later.
Self-Titled Album: Her second album was self titled.
Stalker with a Crush: Implied by "Mr James Dean", "Between You and Me", "Dreamer", "Little Voice"...and others.
- Also dealt with a stalker while dating Joel Madden.
Silly Love Songs: Where Did I Go Right?, Anywhere But Here, Never Stop
Type Cast: At this point, she seems to have two types. In the years immediately following Lizzie McGuire, every character she played was basically "Lizzie McGuire with a different name" and she still plays these sort of roles now and then. War, Inc. established another type for her, the popular, likely spoiled starlet and/or rich girl — in other words, an exaggerated version of herself.
Take That: Dignity to the various controversial people in 2007 including Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Who's That Girl about how her boyfriend cheated on her with Lindsay Lohan and Haters to general gossip culture and people spreading lies to make themselves feel better about themselves...also Lindsay Lohan.
Title Track: Metamorphosis and Dignity
Yandere: Do You Want Me?
Your Cheating Heart: Heavily implied in "Who's That Girl"
- "Stranger" and "Gypsy Woman" deal with her father's cheating.