Miley Cyrus And 'Last Song' Author Nicholas Sparks Detail Their Ideas Of Romance

What better place to hang out with Nicolas Sparks than a bookstore? That’s where USA Today met up with the author and the star of "The Last Song," Miley Cyrus, to chat about the film. Seeing his books adapted to film is nothing new for Sparks. "The Notebook," "A Walk to Remember," "Nights in Rodanthe," "Dear John" and "Message in a Bottle" have all made it to the big screen. Miley, on the other hand, is at a crossroads in her career and trying to make the vital jump from teen idol to serious actress.

In "The Last Song," Miley stars as Ronnie, a young musician bitter about her parents’ divorce. She’s been living with her mother for the past three years, but reconnects with her father (Greg Kinnear) when she’s encouraged to spend the summer with him. While there, she catches the eye of a young guy, played by her actual boyfriend, Liam Hemsworth. Upon arriving at the store, Sparks asks Miley, "What'd you do for fun? Out with Liam?" “At first, he was working, so I was cute," she replies. "I went and got him coffee, bought him an Elvis CD and went and gave it to him at the photo shoot."

Now that that’s out of the way, on to the film. Miley admits, "With the book, I've only gotten through part of 'The Last Song.'" She adds, "Because the movie started first." Sparks jokes, "I don't know if I ever watched a 'Hannah Montana' show. ... Nothing personal. My daughters do every day." Miley throws in one last mocking jab before moving on, “ ‘Nothing personal. I just hate her show.’ ”

More so than Sparks’ unfamiliarity, there’s a major disconnect between Miley’s beloved show and this film, namely her character Ronnie. Unlike the bubbly and outgoing Hannah Montana, Miley explains, "Anything that would make her parents happy is something [Ronnie] doesn't want to do." Sparks adds, “She didn't want to sing.” Instead, Ronnie is an aspiring classical pianist.

As in any Sparks story, the main character is softened by the power of romance. Oddly enough, Sparks shudders at the word. He says, "I write in a genre that was not defined by me. The examples were not set out by me. They were set out 2,000 years ago by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. They were called the Greek tragedies.” He further explains, “(Romances) are all essentially the same story: You've got a woman, she's down on her luck, she meets the handsome stranger who falls desperately in love with her, but he's got these quirks, she must change him, and they have their conflicts, and then they end up happily ever after."

But don’t expect to get exactly that. Sparks clarifies, “You never know if it's going to be a happy ending, sad ending, bittersweet or tragic. You read a romance because you know what to expect. You read a love story because you don't know what to expect." So what should we expect from 'The Last Song'? Considering I’ve never read the book, I don’t know for sure, but, odds are, it’ll require a seriously large box of tissues. You can see for yourself when it hits theaters on March 31st.

Tags Liam Hemsworth, Miley Cyrus, Nicholas Sparks, The Last Song