Miley Cyrus Says Filming a Scene for ‘Something Beautiful’ Gave Her a ‘Disgusting’ Infection

Miley Cyrus isn’t above making sacrifices for her art. While guesting on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Friday (May 23), the pop star revealed that she caught a “brutal” infection in her leg after filming a not-so-hygienic scene for her upcoming Something Beautiful film — resulting in a condition that was so nasty, even her doctors were grossed out.

As seen in some of the previews for Something Beautiful — the accompanying visual to Cyrus’ fast-approaching album of the same name — the musician at one point rolls around on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the film. But while breaking down the scene for Kimmel, Cyrus revealed that she didn’t have the budget to rent out the iconic strip, so she simply went and filmed there in the middle of the night — meaning there was no time or opportunity for her team to clean the ground on which countless people tread day in and day out, before she fully subjected herself to any germs and bacteria on the premises while shooting.

About a month later, the Grammy winner says she had to go to the ICU because her “leg began to disintegrate” around her knee. “The doctor goes, ‘Do you have any idea why you would have such a brutal infection on your kneecap?’” she said, noting that her mind immediately flashed back to writhing around on the unspeakably dirty Walk of Fame.

“To have a surgeon look at you and say, ‘Yuck,’” Cyrus continued as audience members laughed. “Like, they open up cadavers, they see inside the guts of humans, and they’re looking at me telling me I’m disgusting.”

Fans can check out a snippet of the scene in question in trailers for Something Beautiful, but they won’t get to see the full thing until the film premieres in theaters for one night only on June 12 in the United States and Canada, and June 27 worldwide. The album itself drops May 30, with Cyrus unveiling the tracklist — featuring collaborations with Brittany Howard and Naomi Campbell — earlier in May.

Cyrus’ conversation with Kimmel comes just one day after her sit-down with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe went live, featuring the Hannah Montana alum getting candid about her sobriety. “I’ve learned this about myself over the years,” she said in the interview. “The sobriety is like, that’s like my God. I need it, I live for it. I mean that it’s changed my entire life.”

She also opened up about why winning her first-ever Grammys — best pop solo performance and record of the year for Billboard Hot 100-topping hit “Flowers” — in 2024 was a “healing” experience for her. “I think somewhere inside of me, I needed maybe to hold a trophy and just feel for a moment that I have something that I can hold in my hands that feels like a true achievement,” she told Lowe.

Also on Kimmel, Cyrus performed “More to Lose,” one of the singles off Something Beautiful. The album has also been led by “Prelude,” “End of the World” and its title track.

Watch Cyrus’ full Jimmy Kimmel Live interview above.