NEED TO KNOW
Moana, Disney’s new live-action remake of the 2016 animated hit, is in theaters July 10
Sydney-born actress Catherine Lagaʻaia makes her feature film debut in the title role opposite Dwayne Johnson as Maui
Director Thomas Kail and original Moana voice actress Auliʻi Cravalho tell PEOPLE about what made Lagaʻaia well suited for the role, while the 19-year-old star discusses making it her own
How long did it take Catherine Lagaʻaia to become the new Moana? Director Thomas Kail recalls it happened “about 10 seconds” after meeting her.
“She’s something special,” says Kail, the director of Disney’s new live-action Moana (in theaters July 10), who selected Lagaʻaia out of “thousands of submissions” for her feature film debut as the titular Polynesian-inspired chief’s daughter.
Noting that the 19-year-old Samoan-Australian actress went straight from her performing-arts high school to leading a movie opposite Dwayne Johnson (reprising his role as the demigod Maui from the 2016 animated musical), Kail, 49, tells PEOPLE, “I would say to her, ‘If you can do this, at any point in your career you can do anything.’ Nothing will be as big of a leap as that.”
Catherine Lagaʻaia in ‘Moana’
Credit: Disney/YouTube
Lagaʻaia, who calls her Sydney childhood with her Star Wars actor father, Jay, and educator mother, Sandie, “the most normal, run-of-the-mill teenage years ever,” knew that playing the flesh-and-blood version of a beloved Disney character was no small task.
“Everyone’s advice was just that it’s going to be something different,” says the actress, who grew up watching the animated Moana — and calls it “a perfect movie.”
“So there’s no way to match that. You have to do something different,” she continues. “Embracing that and stepping into that with as much ambition and imagination as you can was the best route for us making a live-action [remake].”
Auliʻi Cravalho, the voice behind the title role in 2016’s Moana and its hit 2024 sequel, recalls sending Laga‘aia an email of support before filming. “I was like, ‘I’m here if you need me.’ But I also said, ‘This is entirely your own,’” recalls Cravalho, 25.
The Mean Girls star, an executive producer on the new film, was then impressed with Laga‘aia’s “chutzpah” on set. “To be able to stand next to Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson on a canoe and feel cool as a cucumber? Catherine walked in with that kind of energy.”
Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga’aia on April 16
Credit: Monica Schipper/Getty
The new Moana, written by Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller, includes all of the original film’s plot points and tunes from composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (who penned a new song for the film, “Along the Way,” featuring the voices of Lagaʻaia, Cravalho and Johnson, 54). Lagaʻaia’s Moana voyages past the reef of her isolated island Motunui on a quest to restore the heart of the goddess Te Fiti, stolen by Johnson’s rascally demigod.
The role entailed plenty of challenges for the first-timer, from learning Polynesian dance and wayfinding practices in Hawaii to enduring a “freezing” Atlanta water tank while shooting in front of a blue screen. “When we’re filming those scenes where there’s actually nothing to look at and nothing to play off,” she quips, “that’s when you’re like, ‘That’s Dwayne Johnson in a wig. Wait, what am I doing?’”
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Help from her “Moana ʻohana,” or family, eased the process. Costars like Rena Owen, John Tui and Frankie Adams “really went on that journey with me,” Lagaʻaia says, adding with a laugh that they “got to see me at the very beginning when I truly knew nothing. I thought the props guy’s last name was Props, because that’s what people were calling him!”
Catherine Lagaʻaia and Auliʻi Cravalho on June 15
Credit: Disney(2)
As Lagaʻaia embarks on a massive worldwide press tour starting in Hawaii on June 15, a top priority is honoring her father Jay’s Samoan heritage and representing the authentic Polynesian culture embedded in Moana.
“As well as wanting to do the [Moana team] proud, of wanting to do the people who love the movies proud, my biggest thing was I wanted him to be proud of the legacy that I’m extending for him,” she says.
Moana sails into theaters July 10.
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