Miley Cyrus works out in heels to channel Marilyn Monroe: 'Practice how you perform'

The pop star says she's "interested in feminizing the workout space."

Miley Cyrus loves to work out — but don't expect to catch her wearing sneakers to the gym.

In a recent interview with W Magazine, the pop star revealed that she prefers to wear heels while working out, and also explained her reasoning. "My mantra is, like any athlete, 'Practice how you perform,'" Cyrus said. "So that's why I practice in my heels. The gym looks really tough, but then I've got my ivory Gucci slingbacks because they remind me of Marilyn ­Monroe. I train in heels, mostly."

She added that she's "interested in feminizing the workout space, because so much of the workout equipment is ugly."

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While her unconventional choice of gym footwear links Cyrus to the late Monroe, she also shares some close relationships with other contemporary celebrities. Cyrus duetted with Beyoncé on the latter's new country album Cowboy Carter, which came out of the years-long friendship between the two stars. Cyrus' godmother, Dolly Parton, is also all over Cowboy Carter.

"Sometimes I forget to talk about things that are a ­normal part of my day-to-day, like texting with Beyoncé," Cyrus told W. "I think it's a really cute part of our relationship, because over the past couple of years I've really locked down on my privacy and on what I share with the public. She's the same way. Part of our relationship is the safety between us. The songwriting or the work is just a small part of my relationship with her — or with Dolly, or with anyone. Our personas have a relationship, but then we have a relationship. And I love that."

Cyrus has been famous since she was a teenager starring on Disney Channel's Hannah Montana, and she remembers meeting Beyoncé for the first time when she was around 14 years old, at a cancer benefit concert. Standing between Beyoncé and Rihanna, Cyrus recalls them being "five feet ten inches and in heels. Their hips were, like, up to my shoulders. They were these powerful, fully realized, grown women, and I’m pretty sure I had braces on the back of my teeth. They were protective of me."

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Perhaps that had an impact on her desire to model powerful femininity at the gym. Given that her first project was Hannah Montana (where she played both a fictionalized version of herself and her blond-haired alter ego), Cyrus is used to having a division between her public and private selves. That's also what the gym heels are about — an extension of her performative self, which she compares to a drag persona.

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"I'm fully out of drag today," Cyrus told the interviewer. "I definitely have a persona — an expanded, fully realized version of myself that I tap into as a performer. But then there's a level of my life that's super intimate, sacred, and secret."

Read Cyrus' full interview at W Magazine.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.