Moana 2 actress Auli’i Cravalho has revealed the heartwarming gift she was able to give her mother after she became a star in the first movie.
When she first landed the role of Moana, Auli’i, 24, lived with her family in a one-bedroom apartment in the city of Mililani on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
The original movie came out in 2016 and proved a thunderous success at the box office, with Auli’i earning praise for her voice work opposite Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
Once she became famous, Auli’i, whose mother Puanani raised her on food stamps in Hawaii, decided to give back to the woman who ‘gave me everything.’
She revealed that she used some of the money she earned from the first Moana movie to purchase a house for her mother, in an interview with People.
‘Your parents give you so much. Kids feel a little indebted, I’m going to be honest! But we feel so grateful for our parents’ sacrifices,’ said Auli’i, who is close to her father as well.
Auli’i Cravalho has revealed the heartwarming gift she was able to give her mother Puanani after she became a star in Moana in 2016; Auli’i and Puanani are pictured together that year
Moana 2 bowed in theaters one day before Thanksgiving and has provided a chance for Auli’i to reflect on the eight years since the first film came out.
‘I really get to have that full decade look back at just how much growth I’ve gone through,’ shared Auli’i, whose parents ran a construction company before she was famous.
‘We lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Mililani when I was cast. I slept in the bedroom, my mom slept on the couch. She gave me everything,’ said Auli’i.
She ‘bought my mommy a house’ with some of the proceeds from Moana’s galloping success, and Puanani is now ‘happily retired,’ Auli’i added.
When she was first cast in the original Moana, Auli’i’s parents made sure to keep her feet on the ground, telling her: ‘Listen, if [Moana] doesn’t go anywhere, you need to finish high school. You need to do the dishes. You need to fix your bed. Don’t let it get to your head.’
Even though Moana did prove to be a financial triumph, Auli’i still came home to Hawaii after the promotions and returned to school.
At that stage, she would find herself at times being ‘a little s***. I’d be a little gremlin. I’m going to be honest, I didn’t have anything left….’
She reflected: ‘Sometimes people talk about being a Disney kid, and I think so much of it is giving all of your energy to a project and then having nothing in reserve for yourself.’
Moana 2 bowed in theaters one day before Thanksgiving and has provided a chance for Auli’i to reflect on the eight years since the first film came out; her character is pictured in the new movie
Auli’i is pictured with her co-star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson at the London premiere of Moana 2, held last weekend at the Cineworld Leicester Square
When Auli’i misbehaved as a newly minted child star, Puanani ‘nipped that in the bud real quick’ and provided ‘discipline’ to shore up her daughter’s upbringing.
‘She was the one to really support me right then and there… That was some tough parenting in allowing me to grow as a human, but also looking me in the eye and saying: “You need to be kind and you need to be kind to me.” It was at those moments that I realized: “Okay, I can’t give all of myself,”‘ Auli’i recalled.
Since the first Moana was released, Auli’i has featured in such projects as last year’s movie adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the 2004 high school comedy Mean Girls.
The actress, who sang in Moana, has also lent her talents to musical theater, including playing Argentine first lady Eva Peron in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Evita in a production in London’s West End last year.
This year, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret as Sally Bowles, an English nightclub singer in Weimar Berlin.
