Miley Cyrus claims she's just playing a character

December 13, 2013. Miley Cyrus "twerks" a performer dressed as Santa Claus as she performs during the 2013 Z100 Jingle Ball in New York. (Reuters)

Don't confuse the tongue-wagging, awkward twerking Miley Cyrus of pop culture confused with the real person, Cyrus tells the New York Times in a new interview.

"I went from people just thinking I was, like, a baby to people thinking I'm this, like, sex freak that really just pops molly and does lines all day. It's like, 'Has anyone ever heard of rock 'n' roll?'" she said. "There's a sex scene in pretty much every single movie, and they go, 'Well, that's a character.' Well, that's a character. I don't really dress as a teddy bear and, like, twerk on Robin Thicke you know?"

In addition to Cyrus' defense of her public image, the singer also touches upon the problematic racial connotations of her work, Joe Jonas and why she doesn't have many celebrity friends.

Check out the five highlights below.

1. She doesn't understand why people call her racist: "It's actually really funny how many people could watch my performance, and they think it was, like, sexist and degrading to women, and somehow people found that it was racist, which I couldn't even wrap my mind around. Because I'm like: 'How do I win? If I have white dancers, then I'm racist. If I have black girl dancers, then I'm racist.' We know we're not racist, and I know I'm not putting down women. People got a rise out of me saying that I was a feminist, but I am. I'm telling women be whoever you want to be."

2. She dreams of a post-racial future: "I really thought about it a lot when Nelson Mandela passed away, because I couldn't even imagine living this life and seeing how much it's changed. So, you know, I look forward to when I'm older, my kids being like, 'What do you mean people ever even talked about what color your dancers were?'" Cyrus mused.

3. How her image gets in the way of celebrity friendships: "I don't have a bunch of celeb friends, because I feel like some of them are a little scared of the association," Cyrus said. "This is terrible. I was backstage with [the rising pop star] Ariana Grande. I'm like, 'Walk out with me right now and get this picture, and this will be the best thing that happens to you, because just you associating with me makes you a little less sweet.'"

4. Her reaction to Joe Jonas saying she pressured him into smoking pot: "If you want to smoke weed, you're going to smoke weed. There's nothing that two little girls are going to get you to do that you don't want to do. I thought maybe he was saying that like it was going to make him look bada--," she said.

5. On not wanting to be a role model for young girls: "Right now, me doing any kind of cover for anything that's like, a Seventeen or Teen Vogue or whatever, the way that I talk isn't the way that people that are 17 really understand," Cyrus said. "There was a thing that Kurt Cobain said, something like, 'There's a special place in hell for people that glamorize drugs,' and I never want to be that person that's, like, talking to 16- and 17-year-olds and being like, 'Smoke weed.'"