Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson have just as strong of a bond as their animated counterparts.
“He’s wonderful. He is a hometown hero also, so I feel almost like he’s a big brother or an uncle to me because I’ve heard about him since my childhood, since before Moana,” the actress, 23, exclusively told Us Weekly while chatting about Coral Reef Awareness Week, which began on Monday, July 15. “And getting to meet him, at first, was kind of like, ‘I get to meet The Rock, a superstar.’ And now, I have him via text.”
Cravalho added that she and Johnson, 52, have recently been discussing the upcoming live-action Moana film, which will see Johnson reprise his role as the demigod Maui. Cravalho, meanwhile, has passed the torch to Catherine Laga’aia, who will play Moana in the new adaptation.
“I’m an executive producer on that,” she shared. “So, he is a guiding light through all of this and he’s so lovely. He smells great. All around, wonderful guy.”
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As for what The Rock smells like, Cravalho told Us: “There’s, like, a faint sense of vanilla. I don’t want to get into the undertones of what must be his cologne, but he’s always glistening. … He’s a great costar. I have no complaints.”
The duo met while working on the 2016 Disney animated film, which starred Cravalho as the titular princess Moana. She teams up with Maui to help save her island by restoring the heart of Te Fiti. Both actors are also set to return for the film’s sequel, Moana 2, which hits theaters on November 27.
“I am turning 24 this year, and getting to come back to this character has been really lovely,” Cravalho, who was 16 at the time of the original’s release, told Us. “I get to sing songs that are Disney-fied, but again, there’s also growth in a character and I think it’s so special that for the first time, we get to see a Disney princess grow up.”
Much like the Disney princess, Cravalho also has a strong connection to the ocean thanks to her childhood in Hawai’i. “I come from a large family. I’m an only child, but my mom is the seventh child of a seventh child, so I have hella cousins and my mom has hella siblings,” she explained. “And it was through that she would spend a month at the beach and that was a way that her parents fed the children.”
Cravalho continued: “And I luckily had a really privileged upbringing. I was only one of me, but my mom made sure that I appreciated everything that came my way. And so, now that I’m in a position that I get to speak to you and I get to speak to a larger audience, I feel it’s absolutely necessary that I give back ‘cause I was given so much.”
One way the Mean Girls star is using her platform for good is by raising awareness for coral reef protection through her partnership with SHEBA premium cat food and the Hawaiian nonprofit Kuleana Coral Reefs. In a series of social media videos, Cravalho gives fans an inside look into the organizations’ work to help preserve her home state’s aquatic ecosystem.
“SHEBA is one of the wonderful brands that has this social and sustainable responsibility close to their heart, which makes me feel good as a pet parent to know that they’re focusing on a future, that more coral means more fish,” Cravalho, who is a cat mom to her kitty Rocco, shared. “And I love that they’re thinking ahead, that none of us are perfect, but we can all play our part in helping build a brighter future.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
