Watch Dwayne Johnson & Catherine Laga‘aia Talk ‘O.G. Moana & New G Moana’ Uniting for Live-Action Remake Song, Play Disney ‘Finish the Lyrics’
"Getting to grow up with Moana and having that representation is so important to young girls," Laga'aia tells Billboard of her history with the character.
Black News 
When the original Moana animated film debuted in 2016, Catherine Laga‘aia was a 9-year-old girl growing up in Australia. Ten years later, the teenager is co-starring alongside Dwayne Johnson in the title role of the live-action remake of the film, hitting theaters July 10 — and she had that little girl in mind when she tackled the once-in-a-lifetime role.
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“I grew up with her,” Laga‘aia told Billboard last month during a video interview alongside Johnson in Kapolei, Hawaii. “I think for a lot of young girls, when they kind of get to have their Disney princess, I feel like it’s a rite of passage. … Getting to grow up with Moana and having that representation is so important to young girls. I feel like it changes something in your brain and allows you to dream bigger and think farther. So I think getting to join in that legacy, I hope that it kind of extends that onto the next generation, and makes me be a part of something bigger than myself in a way that Moana also was.”
Moana voice actress — and live-action executive producer — Auli’i Cravalho was able to musically pass the torch to her successor on the brand-new song “Along the Way,” penned by returning Moana songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda. Laga‘aia, Cravalho and Johnson’s Maui all join forces on the buoyant song, which plays over the end credits of the new film.
“My mom got to sit in the booth while I was recording, and so she was sitting next to [director] Tommy [Kail] and Lin, and I come out after we were recording for a bit, and she goes, ‘Katie, they were talking about making a new song,’” Laga‘aia recalls to Billboard about first time hearing about the possibility of a fresh Miranda composition. “And I was like, ‘Mom, they’re not gonna make a new song. … We’re already recording the old ones. There’s no time to make a new one.’ I didn’t hear about it again until we wrapped in Atlanta, and Tommy played it for me and DJ.”
“It’s like, both Moanas – O.G. Moana and new G Moana – but having this musical conversation between these two films, or all the films,” Johnson adds. “It’s just a really cool conceit, and if there’s a guy who can write that, it’s Lin-Manuel. I loved it. I love the song. I just love the idea. I was pushing for the song to be in the film. There’s a part in the film that I thought, ‘Oh, it could go in there.’ … But we can hear a little bit of almost like the instrumental inside the film, which will lead us to the end. I love the song, and I love this idea that … O.G. Moana and Maui, we’re gonna meet you along the way, but this is your journey, and we got you.”
For his part, Johnson is returning to a role that he voiced in both 2016’s Moana and 2024’s Moana 2 — with the original animated film even leading to the actor’s Billboard Hot 100 debut, thanks to the show-stopping Maui solo number “You’re Welcome” — but this is the first time he’s physically embodying the shape-shifting demigod.
“I embody this character physically, emotionally, spiritually – every which way that ends with Y,” Johnson tells Billbaord. “He’s connected to my grandfather, and he was inspired by my grandfather. I lived with my grandfather here on this island. He’s buried on this island. But my grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, had this charisma, big body, tattoos everywhere. He sang like an angel, he was tough, he was everything, and that’s who Maui is. So from the very first day on set, working with Catherine, very first take, it was overwhelming in a good way.”
Above, watch our full interview with Johnson and Laga‘aia, and see Billboard testing their Disney musical knowledge with a game of “Finish the Lyrics.”
