Auli’i Cravalho may never know exactly what ignited her love for performing, but she has a hunch it probably had something to do with her upbringing.
“I’m an only child, so I had no one else to talk to, and I just played pretend,” Cravalho, 23, tells Refinery29 Somos. “I would put on one-woman shows and kiss mirrors, truly. I needed things to do — I grew up in a really small town.”
Born in Kohala, Hawaii, to parents of mixed Native Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Chinese, and Irish descent, Cravalho tried the swim team and a few other activities, but she had “this little spark” that seemed to shine brightest only when she was on a stage of some sort. She sang in church choir and in the glee club, and auditioned for as many school productions as she could.
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Cravalho’s breakthrough came in 2016, when she landed the role of the title character in Disney’s animated movie Moana. A talent agent had stumbled upon footage of Cravalho singing and encouraged her to audition for the film in Los Angeles. The rest, as they say, is history.
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"I’m an only child, so I had no one else to talk to, and I just played pretend. I would put on one-woman shows and kiss mirrors, truly. I needed things to do — I grew up in a really small town."
Auli’i Cravalho
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“I don’t know that I ever expected to have a career in this, but I have always loved singing,” she says. “Honestly, that’s what I love doing: I love playing pretend, and now it’s gotten significantly more serious.”
Since her Moana debut eight years ago, she’s done a little bit of everything, from portraying Ariel in ABC’s The Little Mermaid Live! in 2019, to starring in the Amazon Prime sci-fi series The Power, where she plays Jos Cleary-Lopez, a teenager who develops electric powers.
And now, she’s taking on a character who’s an icon in her own right: Janis Ian, the angsty adolescent outcast initially — and quite memorably — brought to life by Lizzy Caplan in 2004’s Mean Girls. Twenty years later, the classic millennial coming-of-age story is getting a new spin as an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name (which was originally based on the 2004 movie and Rosalind Wiseman’s 2002 book “Queen Bees and Wannabes”).
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“I was born in 2000, our OG came out in ‘04, so there hasn’t really been a time that I haven’t known and been able to quote and reference Mean Girls in my life. I use ‘am I trying to make fetch happen’ in my everyday slang,” Cravalho says.
She recalls getting the audition notice via email and thinking it was kismet. “I have listened to Barrett Weed’s voice for years — she originated Janice on Broadway — so I already had ‘I’d Rather Be Me,’ the iconic song, in my wheelhouse.”
Cravalho “fell in love” with the character as she went through the audition process. “I was actually filming The Power at the time in Vancouver, so I was just belting my head off in the Sutton Hotel over and over and over again trying to get the perfect take.”
She got the take and the role, and in the 2024 version, Janis Ian becomes Janis ‘Imi’ike. Tina Fey, the writer behind both films, asked Cravalho if she would be interested in switching the surnames so they reflected her own cultural heritage.
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"I was born in 2000, our OG came out in ‘04, so there hasn’t really been a time that I haven’t known and been able to quote and reference Mean Girls in my life. I use ‘am I trying to make fetch happen’ in my everyday slang."
AULI’I CRAVALHO
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“She was like, how do you feel about incorporating a little bit more of you into Janice? Which I was so grateful for.”
Cravalho shared a list of names and they chose ‘Imi’ike. “It means striving for knowledge or striving for more, which really made sense for the character. She’s not caught up in the rules of high school. She knows that it’s not the be all, end all. She knows that there’s more.”
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Janice’s inherent grittiness and no-nonsense attitude helped Cravalho develop a deeper understanding of the role. The Janices of the world don’t care about high school hierarchy or “the plastics of it all,” as she puts it. That was refreshing for Cravalho, who had a markedly different experience during her formative years.
“[Janice] would rather sit alone at her lunch table than have to try to fit in with people who just won’t take her as she is, and I found that so profound,” Cravalho says. “I definitely wasn’t that self-aware in high school. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be Regina George or date Regina George when I was in high school. There were so many things, so many emotions going on at that time.”
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"[Janice] would rather sit alone at her lunch table than have to try to fit in with people who just won’t take her as she is, and I found that so profound. I definitely wasn’t that self-aware in high school. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be Regina George or date Regina George when I was in high school."
AULI’I CRAVALHO
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Meanwhile, Janice has a clear mindset, and her best friend, Damien Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey), is her partner in crime, and they see each other for who the other is. It’s a level of mutual acceptance that most people can only dream of finding, especially while in high school. “They love each other, and that’s ultimately what drew me to the role: the fact that I would be able to be a narrator of this incredible cautionary tale and bring a new spin to the Mean Girls that we all know and love.”
Now with the movie and Janis ‘Imi’ike out in the world, Cravalho is shifting focus to other projects, like being an executive producer on the upcoming live-action adaptation of Moana (she’s decided not to reprise the titular role) and a forthcoming animated film with Apple.
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“I am writing and I’m working in music and doing a whole bunch of things to keep my little head busy,” she says.
Even so, the multi-talented multihyphenate goes through ups and downs like anyone else. The scarcity mindset, in particular, is multiplied by the fact that she grew up in an impoverished household.
“People might be surprised that I still have that feeling of job insecurity,” she shares. “I’ve been to therapy about it. I grew up in a single-parent home where my mom was feeding me with food stamps, and I’m just so afraid of taking a break from this industry, even though I want to go to college, I would love to spend some time just devoting it to family, be back home in Hawaii, and maybe take a summer to just enjoy, even dancing hula again.”
As she figures out the balance between work and play, Cravalho relies on periods of intense rest to get reset for the next big role or opportunity. She likes to read and is passionate about her homebody status.
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"People might be surprised that I still have that feeling of job insecurity,” she shares. “I’ve been to therapy about it. I grew up in a single-parent home where my mom was feeding me with food stamps, and I’m just so afraid of taking a break from this industry."
AULI’I CRAVALHO
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“I’m a big fan of rotting in bed, R-O-T-T-I-N-G rotting,” she says emphatically. “I love staying inside all day with a big fluffy robe and taking multiple showers a day just for a little oomph. I’m really such a homebody.”
Her self-care routine typically revolves around staying home, where life is cozy and comfortable. “I have my cat, Rocco, who I love and adore. I’ve got endless books. I also play video games. I have cans of Vienna sausage and Spam and rice. There’s no reason for me to leave.”
There’s a bit of laughter, then a realization. It is about balance, after all.
“I’m going to be so for real: I tried pilates for the first time because my therapist was like, ‘Hey, you should get out of the house,’ so I tried it once,” she says. “I’m really fighting myself, having to go back. Seeing other people is really important for mental health, too.”