Miley Cyrus Drops Emotional ‘Wrecking Ball’ Director’s Cut

When you read “director’s cut,” you more than likely expect something exponentially riskier than what was released the first time around. And with Miley Cyrus, that turns out to be sort of true.

On Tuesday (September 24), she dropped the director’s cut for as a follow-up to the record-breaking Terry Richardson-directed music video. But while the original clip saw Miley wielding a sledgehammer and riding the titular ball, the director’s cut doesn’t really have any cuts. It’s an unbroken take of the heartbreaking close-up of Miley’s face, with her emotions on center stage. The only time Richardson cuts away is at the very end, where, after a quick director’s credit page, we see Terry and Miley laughing and mugging for the camera.

Earlier on Tuesday, Rolling Stone published its cover story on Cyrus, in which she expressed pride in the “real” emotion she showed in the video. While most viewers assumed she was weeping over the soon-to-be-announced breakup with Liam Hemsworth, she surprisingly attributed it to the sadness felt over the recent death of her dog.

The director’s cut comes only days after Miley performed the song for the very first time before a live audience — both in Vegas and all across the country — during the iHeartRadio Music Festival. Fans were stunned as Miley, on bended knee in front of projected images of a collapsing building, was brought to tears while belting out her ballad.

On October 2, fans will get to see Cyrus like never before on MTV with the premiere of a one-hour documentary that covers the creation of her upcoming Bangerz album and explores Miley’s reinvention as an artist. “I want all my fans to come with me: to the studio, on the road, at performances,” Cyrus told MTV. “There’s going to be a lot of ups and downs, and it’s going to be completely insane. You’ve gotta be a part of the movement with me.”