‘Moana’ proves a vocal stretch for The Rock
And a lucky ‘first job’ for his teen co-star smacks of kismet
MONICA, CALIF. Auli’i SANTA Cravalho’s Moana journey began with a rejection.
The Hawaiian high school student and her friends put together a killer audition tape to perform at a local non-profit event, with a cappella harmonies and a beatbox. The charity passed, but the casting director also was working on Disney’s animated Moana movie (in theaters Wednesday) and urged Cravalho to try out.
Sure enough, Cravalho earned the lead role as the Disney heroine.
“It’s a pretty good first job,” Cravalho laughs, sitting beside
Moana co-star Dwayne Johnson, who voices the demigod Maui.
“It’s so cool and crazy,” Johnson adds. “That’s just the way of the universe and the world. How powerful it can be where you want something so badly and it doesn’t happen. But it’s the best thing that never happened. Because then all of a sudden we’re here. And she’s Moana.”
“We’re both success stories,” Cravalho says.
Johnson’s success is clear, having earned $2.2 billion at the box office in his career to date, which prompted him to sing that he was “franchise Viagra” when he hosted Saturday Night Live. But he had to face his own hurdles: Moana is his first major animated role, and it features Johnson singing for real — on a vocally challenging song, no less ( You’re Welcome by Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda).
“Dude, it was a big first step,” Johnson says. “I’ll sing on a TV show. I’ll break out the guitar and have fun with the (pro wrestling) audience. But the bar was raised so high. This is a Disney movie.”
The Rock worked his singing muscle the way he does his biceps, with training overkill. He played Miranda’s demo track non-stop for months during production of his HBO show Ballers and on the sets of Baywatch and Fast 8.
“That song was playing around every corner,” Johnson says. “So I would wake up, it was on my phone. I would get in my truck to drive to work, I would hear it there. Working out, I had it on while training.”
It was all about preparation for The Rock.
“Then if I suck, I’m OK with that,” Johnson says. “Because I can go to bed saying at least I prepared.”
Recording in the Miami studio was such a big deal to Disney that directors Ron Clements and John Musker jetted down, along with Miranda on his day off from
Hamilton. Even the head of Disney Animation Studios, John Lasseter, stopped by from Los Angeles.
“I see him behind the glass, he’s waving. I’m like, ‘Is that John Lasseter? And Lin’s like, ‘Yup, he came to surprise you,’ ” Johnson says. “That was a wow.”
“And you nailed it,” Cravalho says.
USA TODAY’s Brian Truitt calls Johnson’s role a “MVP voice performance” as Moana prepares to sail into theaters for Thanksgiving weekend. For her part, Cravalho says she’ll continue in the entertainment business and has “a few things cooking.” That does not include a call to the nonprofit that rejected her to gloat, even if her co-star thinks it’s a good idea.
“It could be like, ‘ Look at me now,’ ” Johnson says. “But for Auli’i, the world is what she wants to accomplish. She’s special.”
He’s still feeling good about his new song, even joking about a grander vocal outing next time. “For me, next up, it’s definitely Hamilton on Ice.”