{"id":771193,"date":"2026-07-01T02:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/771193\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T02:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:37:16","slug":"moana-star-catherine-lagaaia-disneys-new-live-action-lead-beat-32000-girls-for-this-role-the-toughest-competition-was-under-her-own-roof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/771193\/","title":{"rendered":"Moana star Catherine Laga\u2019aia: Disney\u2019s new live-action lead beat 32,000 girls for this role. The toughest competition was under her own roof"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As much as performers live by the universal truth that to tell a colleague \u201cgood luck\u201d is to curse them, regulars of Australia\u2019s cut-throat audition circuit have another seared into their psyche: if you see Jay Laga\u2019aia<\/a> (Star Wars, Play School) or one of his prodigious progeny waiting for the casting directors, you may as well go home.<\/p>\n

Said local lore went global two years ago when Disney revealed Catherine Laga\u2019aia<\/a> \u2013 a 17-year-old high school student with no film experience \u2013 had the chops to helm the live-action adaptation of Moana, the Oscar-nominated celebration of Pacific cultures<\/a> that is also one of the studio\u2019s most commercially<\/a> and critically successful<\/a> animated properties.<\/p>\n

That a Laga\u2019aia beat out more than 32,000 international hopefuls for the titular role was not a shock to audiences back home. When the announcement came, Jay was touring with Grease The Musical, his son Iosefa was going on his fourth straight year with Hamilton, and daughter Georgia<\/a> was set for Dear Evan Hansen.<\/p>\n

But it was surprising to Catherine Laga\u2019aia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I was at a disadvantage,\u201d she says. \u201cLike, I was so much further behind than everybody else in my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five of Jay\u2019s eight children<\/a> have inherited their father\u2019s penchant for the performing arts. Laga\u2019aia, however, is the only one not to have been a NSW Schools Spectacular<\/a> featured artist. And she wanted it. So bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being 15 and being, like, wow \u2026 that\u2019s peak success,\u201d the now-19-year-old, who was a co-host and compere at the annual showcase in 2022, says, laughing, from her childhood bedroom in Sydney\u2019s inner west.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Milly<\/a><\/p>\n

Behind her is a corkboard pinned with family photos, including with sisters Georgia, 21, and Isabella, 17. Both submitted singing self-tapes for Moana but it\u2019s Laga\u2019aia who is flying out in the morning for the sprint at the end of her marathon: a globe-trotting press tour.<\/p>\n

For now she\u2019s reminiscing about the starting line three years ago, when she thought her \u201cthing\u201d was \u201cstraight acting, straight plays\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even the most casual of observers knows there is no Moana without How Far I\u2019ll Go, the crucial \u201cI Want\u201d song<\/a> with a D5 belt that sets the emotional stakes. \u201cSTRONG SINGER,\u201d as stressed at the end of the open casting call, was a necessity.<\/p>\n

It was also a problem.<\/p>\n

\"CatherineCatherine Laga\u2019aia with her father Jay, mother Sandra and brother Tana at Disney\u2019s Moana special event in Sydney in June.Hanna Lassen<\/p>\n

Growing up feeling eclipsed by the power of her sisters\u2019 pipes robbed Laga\u2019aia of the desire to sing publicly. She wasn\u2019t a featured artist because she never auditioned \u2013 she thought she wasn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was probably my biggest hurdle, having to not only learn how to sing the songs, because they are quite difficult and quite high, but also learning to love listening to them back,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Her mother Sandra was \u201cadamant\u201d she apply. Six months later she was the last Laga\u2019aia in the race (Georgia and Isabella were \u201cgood sports\u201d about it).<\/p>\n

Related Article\"James<\/a><\/p>\n

Standing between the then-16-year-old and the opportunity of a lifetime was an interview and screen test in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe girl in the audition before me came out and she said, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m so sorry \u2026 I move so much when I sing.\u2019 I was thinking, \u2018Wait, I don\u2019t have stage presence. I\u2019ve never sung in front of real people. I don\u2019t know how to do that\u2019,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Imagining how her competitor approached the song, Laga\u2019aia emulated that when she got in the room. Director Thomas Kail<\/a> interrupted her performance \u2013 \u201cI was like, \u2018what, you can do that?\u2019\u201d \u2013 pulling her away from the cameras to instruct her to do what she, not someone else, thought was right.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another universal truth that can make or break stars: singing is all about breathing. Shallow breaths do not provide the diaphragmatic support required to soar through How Far I\u2019ll Go\u2019s melodic jumps, or even Where You Are\u2019s rapid-fire lyrics. Anxiety was not an option.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just gotta do it, girl \u2026 don\u2019t throw this away,\u201d a shaky Laga\u2019aia steeled herself. \u201cThey stopped me to help me, not to screw me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a natural \u2026 Life as she has known it will never be the same. I\u2019m so proud of her for the job she\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dwayne Johnson on Moana co-star Catherine Laga\u2019aia<\/p>\n

A core component of Moana\u2019s character \u2013 and partly why she shirks the \u201cprincess\u201d label, preferring \u201cdaughter of a chief\u201d \u2013 is her grit. To save the island of Motunui she has to disobey her father, sail across the ocean and drag an unwilling demigod (Maui, played by producer Dwayne Johnson<\/a>) towards what he believes will be his demise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a fearlessness,\u201d Kail tells this masthead at the tour\u2019s Sydney stop. The actress for the job needed to be someone who could access her power without sacrificing Moana\u2019s vulnerability. \u201cYou can coach it but you can\u2019t teach it \u2026 you either have it or you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laga\u2019aia had it.<\/p>\n

She got the call in February 2024. By May she was pulled from Newtown High School of the Performing Arts<\/a> for pre-production overseas. (She credits the education and friendly competition with her like-minded peers at the partially selective public school as pivotal to coming out of her shell and securing the role.)<\/p>\n

So began seven months of what Laga\u2019aia describes as an elaborate game of hot potato, which included juggling her Higher School Certificate<\/a> exams with filming.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Disney\u2019s<\/a><\/p>\n

She sat her English exam in front of a vanity on the first day of shooting in Oahu, Hawaii. \u201cYou look up and you\u2019re just staring at despair and panic,\u201d she says. It was \u201cawful\u201d.<\/p>\n

Months later, in a Los Angeles trailer, her on-set teacher\u2019s golden retriever kept her company during her final assessments. Sometimes Laga\u2019aia would look down and see she had written her lines for the scene she was about to shoot instead of an equation.<\/p>\n

Whatever stress she felt would be gone by the time she had to hold her own against Johnson, a Hollywood veteran as beloved as the franchise itself.<\/p>\n

Much of the film is Laga\u2019aia and Johnson bickering on a canoe, the endless back-and-forth requiring a knack for timing. That takes years to hone, says Johnson, and it\u2019s \u201cnot like she\u2019s had 15 big movies under her belt\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Catherine,Catherine, pictured here on the set of Disney\u2019s live-action Moana, juggled her year 12 exams during the film\u2019s five-month shoot.Disney<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a natural \u2026 Life as she has known it will never be the same,\u201d Johnson tells this masthead. \u201cI\u2019m so proud of her for the job she\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The press tour is the first time Laga\u2019aia is allowing herself to bask in this praise. She\u2019s been sequestered from social media \u2013 her friends forbidden from forwarding good and bad commentary they\u2019ve seen online \u2013 since the trailer\u2019s release, when she saw the message \u201cgirl, no you\u2019re not\u201d written over a clip of her singing \u201cI am Moana\u201d.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that\u2019s why her father was \u201capprehensive\u201d about her stepping into a role of such magnitude.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNot because he didn\u2019t believe that I could do it,\u201d she adds, quickly. \u201cBut because he grew up in the industry. He knows how things can go wrong, and he knows all the sour sides of things \u2026 He had absolute faith that I could do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s obvious from Jay\u2019s Instagram account<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs her father, watching that unfold has been one of life\u2019s greatest privileges,\u201d a recent missive gushes, \u201cnot because she became Moana but because she never stopped being Catherine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laga\u2019aia, whose grandparents are from Savai\u2019i and Upolu in Samoa, relies on those who see her as both to carry her through.<\/p>\n

\"CatherineCatherine was nine when the original Moana film was released in 2016. Here she is dressed as the Disney princess.Jessie Laga’aia<\/p>\n

\u201c[Moana] is such a love letter to the culture \u2026 the community that we have,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen my casting was announced, when the trailer was announced, the people who had my back were the Pacific Islanders.\u201d<\/p>\n

What could she possibly do next to top this?<\/p>\n

\u201cComing off Moana I was like, \u2018I\u2019ve got to do something bigger \u2026 something better\u2019 \u2026 But I think my perspective is very much changed,\u201d she says. \u201cThe amount of joy I got from Moana is the amount of joy I need to get from my next project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moana is in cinemas from July 8.<\/p>\n

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