Oscar Exclusive: Stars Dish With Barbara Walters

Feb. 22, 2008— -- Four of Hollywood's hottest megastars spend a revealing hour with Barbara Walters for this year's Oscar edition of "The Barbara Walters Special." Academy Award nominee Ellen Page, superstar Harrison Ford, Emmy Award nominee Vanessa Williams and teen sensation Miley Cyrus sit down with Walters to share their thoughts and perspectives on their successes.

Miley Cyrus: 'Everyone Has That Dream'

Teen sensation Miley Cyrus has had a whirlwind year with a No.1 movie, a top-selling tour and a hit album. The "Hannah Montana" star told Walters about her acting aspirations, being a role model, staying grounded and working with her father, country star Billy Ray Cyrus. "I think the basis of the show is pretty much life. When I'm at home, it's my friends, it's my family."

Leticia Cyrus, Miley's mom and manager, travels with Miley and makes the rules.

"I would say I'm like really, really strict," she told Walters. "But I definitely have a lot of boundaries."

She also said she knew her daughter was going to be a star from the beginning. "I mean, from the time she was two and three years old, she would stand at Billy Ray's dad's house on the stairs and sing 'Tomorrow' at the top of her lungs."

Now 15, Miley lives with her whole family in Los Angeles and gets her own wing of the house.

Hollywood is full of young stars who have struggled with drugs and addiction, but Miley told Walters she doesn't really rebel, that she relies on her family and her faith to keep her focused. "I know that some people don't have a family to fall back on like I have," she said. "I think a lot of these people, you know, do have Christian families and they're just not seeing that they're so much greater than the materialistic things that are there right now like, you know, going out in the parties and whatever.

"The people that are the ones you wanna hold onto are the people that tell you the truth," she added.

Miley said she can't imagine herself in the shoes of her friend Jamie-Lynn Spears, who is pregnant at 16.

"It's definitely hard when it's your friend," she said. "Jamie Lynn is, you know, a friend a mine. But also I know how strong she is as a person. I just think it's pretty cool that she stepped away, 'cause that's what I would have to do."

Miley said she sees herself as a role model and thinks people are so fascinated with Hannah Montana because she represents both the reality and the dream.

"It all starts from the root of it, which is the show," she said. "And that's showing a normal girl that also has this huge dream and she's getting to live it … And everyone has that. I think no matter whether it's for singing or acting or whatever you want to do, everyone has that dream that they want to go for."

Miley told Walters that her father always supported her dream, but also told her that "Hollywood's a heartbreak waitin' to happen."

"He didn't wanna see his little girl, you know, crying and, and upset," she said. "And when there's more times that you get told 'no' than you get told 'yes.' And I think that's made me a lot stronger. But it definitely was hard to see me come home and be so upset. But every time I got knocked down, I would wanna get back up again."

Vanessa Williams: From Miss America to 'Ugly Betty'

In a candid interview, Emmy Award-nominated and Grammy-winning actress/singer Vanessa Williams opens up to Walters about her hit television series "Ugly Betty" and how playing the role of Wilhelmina Slater has revived her career.

"I have to be honest; I am surprised that you even called me," she told Walters. "I have been working for, good Lord, over 20 years. So the fact that I am in a show that has done so well so quickly still astounds me."

Williams first tasted stardom when she won the Miss America pageant in 1983, at age 20.

When asked if there's anything she wishes she'd done differently, Williams said, "Had I lived my life over again, I wouldn't have gone out for the pageant. It was one of those happenstance things … I was gonna finish undergrad and go to Yale Drama, and go to New York."

As for her personal life, after two divorces, Williams told Walters, "I would prefer to be with a partner."

"I like being married," she said. "And I had four kids, three from my first marriage, one from my second. I enjoy having a partner. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy traditional things. So being alone is something that I have become accustomed to."

The star of "Ugly Betty" is a far cry from ugly, but she says she has to work to stay beautiful.

"I certainly do Botox, which I definitely think that almost every woman that I know has [done]," she said. "And it's a miracle drug, no cutting, nothing -- and I love it. But I also want to act too … so I don't do it to freeze my face," she said.

"I have a trainer in New York and L.A. that I go to all the time," she continued. "And I have a yoga instructor that comes to my house. I have food that's delivered, so when I am on the set I can pass by the craft service table and go eat my healthy, well-balanced food."

Williams told Walters she experienced racism growing up, which inspired her to work harder. She said Barack Obama's presidential run makes her "very proud."

"I think it's such an exciting time, not only for Barack, but also for Hillary," she said. "It's a no-lose situation. And I am really, really excited that it's happening at this point."

As for this exciting time in her own life, Williams said, "it almost seems like there is no such thing as a coincidence … so I look back at my life and say, 'I guess that's what the cards were dealt for me.'"

Ellen Page: 'I Feel Weird Being Nominated'

Academy Award-nominee Ellen Page talks about her experience making the hit film "Juno" and what it has been like since the success of the film landed her an Oscar nomination. The 21-year-old actress told Walters that she doesn't think she deserved the nomination.

"I really don't, to be honest with you," she said. "I feel even weird being nominated with truly … people I have, you don't even know, I have so much respect for, and people that I've been blessed to meet during this, during the last few months."

She says she liked the film's approach to the subject of teen pregnancy. "I think this was definitely a film that took a warmer humanist, optimistic perspective on the matter. And I think it's a nice thing to have."

Page said she didn't have the acting bug as a child, until she was discovered.

"I wouldn't even have known who actors were except for you know, like Julia Roberts or something."

When asked what the biggest misconception about her is, Page responded, "I definitely get painted with like anti-Hollywood, anti-blah, blah, blah, angsty, you know. But I'm really not that dark of a human being. "

Walters asked for Page's thoughts about the young actresses and actors who escape into drugs.

"To me it's … people just like to pick away at other people, you know? You have Web sites that are just devoted to finding … a stain on an actor's pants," she said. "I would like anyone else who does that judging … to be in that person's position and see what that feels like."

Harrison Ford: Indiana Jones, Reborn

Harrison Ford's global star power has generated over a billion dollars in box office receipts. The Academy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated star is best known for his performance as the adventurous archaeologist and action hero Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. in the "Indiana Jones" film series.

After 19 years, Ford is back, reviving his role as "Indiana Jones."

Walters asked if Ford cared whether or not he ever won an Oscar.

"You know, the, the Oscar represents the respect of your peers," Ford said. "But I respect my, the people I work with and, and I'd rather earn their respect on the set day by day — that means more to me than an award, really."

Harrison said he didn't feel underrated as an actor, explaining that he is "useful in some things," but not in other things.

In his first film, "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round," he was a bellboy, but his acting didn't impress a vice president of Columbia Pictures, where Ford worked as a contract player.

"He told me that he'd seen the dailies and that I was never gonna make it in the business," said Ford. "He said, 'Kid, when Tony Curtis had his first part in a movie, he delivered a bag of groceries, you took one look at that guy and you knew that was a movie star.' … And smart-ass that I was, and am, I leaned across the desk and I said, 'I thought you were supposed to think it was a grocery delivery boy.'"

Ford was thrown out of the VP's office, and he says they proceeded to try to break his contract.

Ironically, it pushed Ford onto a different path, one he describes as an "independence of mind" that served him well in the long run.

Walters asked Ford how he would want to be remembered after his movie career.

"As a good collaborator. As a good partner," he said. "And … I mean that in all aspects of my life, professional, personal. Somebody that was, that put something into it."