By the D23 Team
In Disney’s live-action reimagining of the beloved Oscar®-nominated animated adventure Moana, the titular character (Catherine Lagaʻaia) answers the ocean’s call—and voyages beyond the reef of her cherished island of Motunui for the first time, alongside the infamous demigod Maui (newly named Disney Legend Dwayne Johnson). It proves to be a truly unforgettable journey…
Directed by Emmy® and Tony Award® winner Thomas Kail (Hamilton); produced by Johnson, p.g.a., Beau Flynn, p.g.a., Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, p.g.a., and newly named Disney Legend Lin-Manuel Miranda; Moana is executive produced by Scott Sheldon, Charles Newirth, Kail, and Auliʻi Cravalho, who voiced Moana in the animated films Moana and Moana 2.
With audiences just about to sail into theaters nationwide for the film’s big July 10 premiere, D23 is excited to debut some exclusive portraits of Johnson and Lagaʻaia taken during the recent CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, NV, seen above and throughout the article. Below, we chat with the pair about their characters, their experiences on set, and more…
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
D23: Dwayne, you’ve lived with this character for over a decade now. What were you excited to bring in terms of nuances to Maui this time around?
Dwayne Johnson (DJ): Real flesh and blood and souls behind the eyes. And I was excited about the opportunity we have—because this is a beloved, universal franchise. And now we have a shot to do something really special. It’s also converging with this really cool global embrace and curiosity of Polynesian culture, which we found with [the animated] Moana, and Moana 2. I will say that the thing that I love most is the representation of our culture and how it was done.
D23: And Catherine, what did you feel about the character of Moana, before you auditioned? What did she mean to you?
Catherine Lagaʻaia (CL): She was just true representation to me, that first time I got to see her on screen. I thought it was really funny actually, because I didn’t really think she looked like me; I thought she looked like my sister! But I feel like that’s such a universal experience with Moana. Even if she doesn’t exactly look like you, she reminds you of someone—and that’s because she is such an accurate and true representation of the Pacific Islands and of Polynesia. Even beyond her, all of the other characters, they have that same essence of people you may know.
D23: Knowing how much that character means to people, how did you want to honor what happened in the animated films and then also make it your own?
CL: That’s such a cool thing, that I might be a new kid’s Moana—because I know how much I idolized her and how important she was to me. So, I think stepping into this role and kind of giving her a “second life,” you can’t disregard the first. That has to be where you come from and be a really important baseline for me playing her; without Auliʻi and without that Moana, there is no opportunity for this to exist. I’m so honored to share this space with Auliʻi and to get to be another person who understands what it’s like—to a different extent, to a different level. But we now have this shared experience and this commonality of getting to play and be Moana.
D23: Dwayne, can you talk about the making of the film? What inspired you about the process?
DJ: It all starts at the top. It starts with our maestro and our director, Tommy [Kail]—we first met in 2023, and he said things that really moved me, just in terms of the vision of the film; how we wanted to approach it; how we wanted make people feel. And I’m paraphrasing here, but he said, “You know, in the creative process, a lot of time, with whatever it is that we’re delivering—music, dance, film, whatever it is—it’s written in the sand, but it will get washed away. But what can we do where we’re gonna etch it in stone, where it never goes away, and it’s forever?” I love that. I’m the kind of guy who gets fired up when I hear that! I loved that we went out and made this film, and I loved everything that Tommy brought to the film.
D23: And Catherine, what surprised you most about your experience on set?
CL: Just how many people are attached to films! I was speaking to Tommy earlier and he said something like 2,000 people were attached to Moana—from all of our VFX people to all the people who worked in the office, to transportation, to catering. There are all of these people who don’t get to see their face on the poster. They don’t have people coming up to them saying, “Oh, you were in Moana, weren’t you?” But they played such a vital and important part of it. Our beautiful costumers, our makeup artists, our hair stylists, all the incredible people who build this world around us so that it looks the way it does, it sounds the way that it does. It’s definitely not a one-person thing. Even though Moana was on the boat by herself, it was carried and sailed by thousands.
See Disney’s Moana in theaters beginning July 10!