Moana‘s Auli’i Cravalho confirms she won’t star in live-action remake
Cravalho serves as an executive producer on the project, alongside co-star Dwayne Johnson, who will be reprising his role
Aux News Cravalho
When Disney first embarked on its apparently endless plans to film live-action remakes of its celebrated catalogue of animated films—which kicked off in earnest, we’d argue, with Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella in 2015—the question of whether to bring back members of the original cast to reprise their roles was rendered largely moot by the fact that most of said cast members were, well, dead. (Of the original cast of 1950's Cinderella, for instance, only William Edward Phipps, who played Prince Charming, and June Foray, the animation legend who provided the noises for Lucifer the Cat, were still alive when Branagh’s film came out, and both were in their 90s.)
But as live-action Disney has raced haphazardly to catch up with animated Disney, those gaps have gotten a lot smaller—culminating in the reveal last month of the Moana remake, with Dwayne Johnson reprising his role as the demigod Maui just seven years after voicing him for the animated film. This week, though, the film’s star, Auli’i Cravalho, confirmed that she will not be doing the same.
Cravalho, who’s an executive producer on the film, confirmed the news to fans on her Instagram this weekend, telling viewers that “I believe it is absolutely vital that casting accurately represents the characters and stories we want to tell.” (Cravalho is presumably referring to the fact that she’s now 22, while Moana in the film is 14; Johnson, playing an immortal, can presumably skirt those issues.) “I can’t wait to find the next actress to portray Moana’s courageous spirit, undeniable wit and emotional strength,” Cravalho added. “I’m truly honored to pass this baton to the next woman of Pacific Island descent to honor our incredible Pacific peoples, cultures and communities that help inspire her story, and I look forward to all the beautiful Pacific representation to come.”
Cravalho’s statement comes as Disney is facing controversy over its casting for another remake focused on characters of Pacific Island descent: The live-action Lilo & Stitch, which has faced critiques in some quarters for casting actors who are lighter-skinned than their animated counterparts—including Sydney Agudong as Lilo’s sister Nani.
51 Comments
Yeah, I don’t know.If it was just about the age, she could have said, I’m told old for the role.It definitely sounds more like we’re treading into the dumb fights of casting and deciding if someone is “pacific island enough” for this role like the Nani role.
Another outlet reported that she is standing down because she is mixed race and only part API. My unimportant opinion is that’s silly since I think an awful lot of API people are part European now. Also, her skin is a little lighter than it was in the cartoon. I respect her decision, but it smacks of gate keeping.
Yup.It reeks of the type of shit done to keep minorities fighting amongst each other.It’s dumb.You either are something or you aren’t. This shouldn’t be some shades bullshit.
Lordy, “you people” really can’t STFU.
Yes, telling people to stop commenting in a comment thread.
There’s ya problem.
Since it’s not your issue, how about shutting up and getting on with your day?
You could try arguing the point the OP made.
But you’ll have to put some effort into thinking then.
Also The Rock is only half Pacific Islander himself.
Yikes that reminds me of blood quantums and purity. What became she’s part Portuguese that doesn’t count? I get why having a white person play an Asian role like Emma Stone was terrible but going your not X enough therefore you cannot does not sit well with me. Hell I’m half Spanish half Irish, where does that put me?
Unfit to play either Pablo Picasso or Bono in their biopics.
Darn there goes my acting career. I was so excited to see the Twitter death threats for playing woke trans woman Pablo Picasso.
Think of it this way, you could have ended up playing Bono and just have been hated because you were playing Bono. Nobody likes Bono
I like the first two U2 albums and I still hate Bono. Bullet dodged
Just two? I’d say they are pretty A games through Zooropa and even like “Hold me, Kill me, Kiss me, Kill me”I think late 90s is when Bono started to become insufferable. If you played Bono you’d at least get to also play Mister MacFisto too!
I would say peaked with the first two, War is almost as good, and then we get diminishing returns. Zooropa is not bad. Also damn it Mister Macfisto is very tempting.
Going by her socials, I’d be surprised if this wasn’t at least partly her idea. She seems proud of playing Moana, but also very keen on creating more roles for AAPI actors. Even these days, that still usually means taking the initiative to produce your own opportunities instead of relying on the studios. Getting experience as an EP and casting a new young Hawai’ian actor gets her everything she’s aiming for.
Moana was SEVEN years ago. Is their next project a live action remake of Strange World?
Well, it has been in the news recently, so strike while the iron is hot.
The Rock needs a hit.
Live-action Frozen. It’s coming at some point, 100%.
The crazy thing about this is that it’ll be the first remake of a CGI movie. So all the stuff like the coconut dudes or the Shiny crab will just be…CGI again, but look less like cartoons?
Do you know that CGI stands for computer generated images?…. I feel like you don’t understand what animation is.
No, I do. It’s that everything in Moana is CGI, so to recreate that stuff, they’re going to do even more CGI, only now it’ll be photo-realistic like Lion King.
Yeah no they aren’t gonna find a better Moana. The Rock was a lot of fun in the original but I’m of the opinion Auli’i was the big standout. She was absolutely fantastic, comparable to Paige O’Hara as Belle. I don’t see anyone doing as good, but this project in general is just a massive question mark of why one after the other. The Rock needs an ego check badly.
I mean…do you think the Rock was driving this, haha?He’s just happy for the money check.
The Rock is so in his own world that he’s never realize his ego was being checked. Look at the denial he is in over Black Adam
He knows. That’s why he made a shock return to the main F&F franchise.
Did he? In the new movie? Haven’t seen it yet. Not a big FF fan so I general catch them when they hit streaming.
Black Adam is the best movie ever made. It deserves all the awards. (Please help me)
Well clearly it should win an Oscar, Grammy, Tony and Emmy. Also maybe a Pulitzer and all the Nobel prizes
Yes. Yes it should. We all know this! (He’s right behind me)
Your comment is akin to “we need to put white people in yellow face cuz there aren’t enough asian actors in town to do The King & I”. This movie is somewhat important to a group of people so maybe just take your shitty opinion elsewhere?
I’m floored by the fact that racists have taken over the AV Club.
Did you actually read the post you’re replying to, which says that this Pacific Islander actress is the best possible one for the role, and that they will not find anyone who can do it better? It says nothing, literally zero, about possible replacements or their possible race or ethnicity. Yet you call the poster a “racist.” This is just shameful.
Or maybe they just really liked Auliʻi Cravalho’s performance in Moana.
But sure, go for the most ridiculously extreme reasoning. At least no one will be floored that such commenters still exist at the AV Club.
As for taking their opinion elsewhere, then you’d have nothing to discuss in this discussion thread. Obviously.
This is such a bizarre response to that post. Like they mention a white person/character from Beauty and the Beast having the same issue of being nearly impossible to top. I don’t think racists have taken over the AV club. At least in this case you’re seeing something that just isn’t there.
Like…. people seem to think there’s like a total of two pacific islanders out there. This line of thinking that there surely can’t be two pacific islander actors in the world is so bafflingly stupid / racist. That’s just your default for not wanting to make an effort to support an ethnic group seperate from your own. Asswhipe.
That’s not what anyone here is saying.
You can be a fan of Auliʻi Cravalho and want to support cultural representation too. These things aren’t mutually exclusive.
Let’s replace The Rock with Frankie fucking Adams.
Is it a genetic thing with you people where you feel compelled to open your gaping maws about things that are NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS? Or are y’all just that attention deprived?
Should go without saying that these comment threads are open for everyone.
The point is discussion of the topic at hand no matter who you are.
If you only commented on topics that were actually your personal business then there’d be hardly any discussion here. Obviously.
Lol
Is it a genetic thing with you people
That’s none of your business, you nosy little shit.
Are you new to the internet, or?
Gaping maws?
The live-action , which has faced critiques in some quarters for casting actors who are lighter-skinned than their animated counterparts—including Sydney Agudong as Lilo’s sister Nani.Also that one guy who did a bunch of racisms online and got fired like a day after his casting was announced, lol.
They probably could have aged Moana up to 18/19 and it would have worked. I really hope this wasn’t because of gross “she’s too light-skinned to play the role” nonsense.
Dear AV Club, choosing live-action Moana as the one that broke your back kinda of seems racist given the whole POC princess thing. Maybe posting a bunch of articles being like “ugh seriously!” isn’t a great look…. just saying.
“who asked for this?!” an entire demographic of kids who want to see themselves on screen.
I raise a Rock-esque eyebrow to the idea of super in shape The Rock playing his obese character in live action.
Maui isn’t obese. He’s larger than life. Give your other comments why are you offended by that and not about the fact that Dwayne Johnson is only half Pacific Islander.
Major baddie