Reinterpreting a beloved Disney characters would be a challenge for any actor, but was it especially daunting for Catherine Laga’aia, who was just 17 when she made her film debut leading Disney’s live-action Moana.

Read more YouTuber Ben Schneider Signs With CAA (Exclusive)

Laga’aia, now 19, took over the role from Auli’i Cravalho, who voiced the character in the two previous animated movies, and was well aware of the pressure that came with the role. As an Australian actress of Samoan descent, it was nerve-wracking knowing she was embodying a character that she grew up resonating with, but was quickly put at ease by co-star Dwayne Johnson and director Thomas Kail, known for Broadway’s Hamilton.

Of first watching the 2016 film she recalls thinking: “This is a princess who looks like me. This is a princess who looks like my sister. The dad looks like my dad. This is a village on an island that has been described to me, and now it’s being so vividly put in front of me.”

Laga’aia was basically unknown when she auditioned for Moana, only previously appearing in a few episodes of the Australian miniseries The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart in 2023, but beat out 32,000 applicants worldwide in an open casting call on Instagram for the lead role.

Though she didn’t have much confidence going into the audition, she quips that her mom instantly knew she would be landing the part — call it mother’s intuition.

Now, as Laga’aia prepares to welcome the world to her Moana, she finds herself reflecting on where her love of acting first began: her father, Jay Laga’aia, best known for playing Captain Typho in the Star Wars prequel films. And you can save your nepotism jokes, because Laga’aia is very much aware of who her father is.

“I grew up looking at what my dad did, and I have so much respect for how much kind of grit and determination and passion he puts into his work,” she says. “And when you grow up watching someone love something that much, you’re like, ‘Well, it must be worth it. There must be something there.’”

Below, Laga’aia opens up about the acting advice she’s received from her father, how she brought her version of Moana to life on screen, working with Johnson, how she’s prepared herself for her newfound fame and more.

Seeing your father’s success in the industry, what did you learn from his career that you’re applying to your own?

One of my dad’s biggest pieces of advice is that your job is the audition. Your job is not the job. You don’t have that yet. So your job is whatever sides they gave you and whatever song they want you to sing. So that mentality of coming in and being like, I’m going to give this every ounce of effort that I’ve got, I’m going to give this every piece of myself to try and put the best foot forward, essentially.

Knowing so many young girls look up to Moana, how did you approach making your own version of this beloved character?

The biggest thing that I got from Tommy [Kail] and from Auli’i [Cravalho] herself as well was to make it my own. The best thing about the live action is that we don’t want to try and recreate what’s already been done because that’s already been done. What we want to do is to bring new things and to bring new aspects into our version of the film. So coming into it, I wanted to bring elements of myself and pieces of who I am. I think my Moana is a little bit older than Auli’i’s Moana because I was 17 and she was 14. And even though there’s a very little gap between those two, meeting a 17-year-old and meeting a 14-year-old is different. So being that age and leaving my school and leaving the things I know to travel somewhere new that I’d never been before, I think that seeped its way into my performance.

The franchise brings representation to the Pacific Islander heritage. What does that mean for you?

Read more ‘Top Boy’ Star Micheal Ward Found Not Guilty of Rape in London Court

It truly felt like we had a village. And something that Tommy said a lot was that we are now the villages of Motunui. We come from wherever we come from. We come from all of the islands in the Pacific, all the islands in Polynesia. But the one thing we all have in common now is that we are all from Motunui. And that’s such a cool kind of uniting thing. It felt like we were all kind of family members. You call everybody uncle; you see all the little kids and aunties running around. It was a lot of fun and a lot of energy.

You also work closely with Dwayne Johnson. What advice did you get from him? 

One thing I picked up from Dwayne is just how game he is. He’s just down to do anything where they’re like, “OK, Dwayne, give this a try.” And what they’re asking him to do is like, “OK, do a pirouette and then jump off the boat.” I think watching someone be like, “All right, here we go, let’s do it,” that’s the best thing because having someone be so down, it’s a great energy because then all you want to be is just as down. You want to give things just as much and try just as hard.

In addition to on-location filming, you also did a lot of work on sound stages with blue screens, where CGI would be added later. Was that a challenge?

I would love for there to be a director’s cut released of what I was looking at while you guys are looking at this beautiful pig and beautiful green tree woman. What was [I] looking at? Nothing (Laughs.) But one of the best things is that even though I can’t see and I don’t know what I’m looking at and oftentimes I’m staring at a big blue sheet of paper, I have the 2016 [movie]. I can always go back and be like, “What does Te Fiti look like? What does Pua and Heihei look like?” I would say the hardest thing is when you have to physically interact with them when they’re like, “Katie, kick Heihei.” And it’s like, “OK, let me think. Where am I kicking him? Is it going to hurt? How heavy is he? How far is he going to go?” One of the big things for me and DJ was making sure you don’t step on him because he’s also on the boat with us.

One of my favorite ones was when we were shooting the Kakamora battle and they were like, “The Kakamoras are going to drop onto you and you just pull them and then throw them. And wherever you throw them, that’s where we’ll put them.” … And they were like, “Dwayne, pluck one off Katie,” and he’s like, “We looked genuinely like crazy people. We looked nuts.”

Did you take any props or costumes from the set to keep as a memento?  

I wish and don’t think I didn’t try. I was asking every other day, “Hey, can I have that?” “No, you can’t.” But so much of it is so precious and delicate that if I had it and if they, God forbid, had to ship it back from Australia, who knows what would happen to it? So I have the flower that Moana wears. And I asked for the ore and I am waiting for it. So to the props master, to Matt [Cavaliero], give me my ore because I know you have it and I know it’s in your house somewhere. (Laughs.)

Are you prepared for the newfound attention as this film launches your career and hopefully opens more doors?

I find it still very bizarre. I feel like I can’t comprehend why people want to hear from me, hear about me, or why people want pictures of me. Even the concept of The Hollywood Reporter being like, “Oh, they want to talk to you.” It’s like, “Why? What do I have to contribute?” But I personally haven’t changed that much. And this is where the idea of an overnight success happens, where people think, “Oh, I didn’t know you and now I do.” Overnight success where you forget all of the things that happened before just because you didn’t know who I was.

For those who are just getting to know you via this film, what do you want them to know about you?

I want them to know A) that I’m completely aware that I’m a nepo baby. I know that, so you can’t call me out on it because I already know it. (Laughs). I don’t know what people would possibly want to know. I would say if they aren’t a fan of me, there’s seven other different variants that they can try and they might be a bigger fan of. But yeah, I honestly just don’t think there’s very much interesting about me. (Laughs.)

When looking ahead, what are your big goals in the industry? Do you have any dream roles or characters or projects? Anyone you’re dying to work with? 

I grew up loving theater and wanting to be a part of theater. That was the element of acting that I loved the most. I think I’ve learned so much about film acting and being on screen that now I’ve come to love it and I’m like, “OK, what’s next?” I’m so excited by the idea of doing indies, similar things to Moana, but I would feel incomplete if I never got to do something on stage.

Read more ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Showrunner on the Spirit of the Netflix Adaptation and Its Parallels With ‘The Boys’: “America Is a Myth-Maker”