Moana Actor Auli?i Cravalho Grew Up on Food Stamps; Disney Success Allowed Her to Buy ‘My Mommy a House’ and ‘She’s Happily Retired’
Auli’i Cravalho, the actor who voices Moana in Disney’s animated franchise of the same name, recently told People magazine that the money she earned off the success of the original 2016 film allowed her to buy a house for her mother. It was a notable achievement considering Cravalho was raised on food stamps as a child. She’s now back as Moana in the record-breaking sequel.
“I really get to have that full decade look back at just how much growth I’ve gone through,” the 24-year-old Cravalho told People about coming back for “Moana 2.” She noted that she and her mother “lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Mililani” when she was first cast as the Disney adventurer nearly a decade ago.
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“I slept in the bedroom, my mom slept on the couch. She gave me everything,” the actor added.
Then “Moana” brought levels of success that Cravalho could have never anticipated. The movie was a box office hit at the time of release with $687 million worldwide, but its popularity skyrocketed in the years that followed thanks to PVOD platforms and the streaming service Disney+. “Moana” was the most streamed movie on Disney+ in 2023, for instance, seven years after its release.
“I bought my mommy a house” and “she’s happily retired,” Cravalho said about how “Moana’s” success impacted her life. “Your parents give you so much. Kids feel a little indebted, I’m going to be honest! But we feel so grateful for our parents’ sacrifices.”
“My parents were like, ‘Listen, if [‘Moana’] doesn’t go anywhere, you need to finish high school. You need to do the dishes. You need to fix your bed. Don’t let it get to your head,'” she remembered her parents telling her when she got cast as the Disney hero. When she proceeded to “be a little shit” or act like “a little gremlin” at home, her parents snapped her back into focus.
“Sometimes people talk about being a Disney kid, and I think so much of it is giving all of your energy to a project and then having nothing in reserve for yourself…[My mother] nipped that in the bud real quick. She was the one to discipline. She was the one to really support me right then and there… That was some tough parenting in allowing me to grow as a human, but also looking me in the eye and saying, ‘You need to be kind and you need to be kind to me.’ It was at those moments that I realized, ‘Okay, I can’t give all of myself.’”
Cravalho went on to star in movies like the “Mean Girls” musical and is currently on Broadway in “Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club.” But she knows “Moana” will likely remain her biggest blockbuster, especially now that the film’s sequel just opened to record-breaking numbers at the box office. “Moana 2” is now playing in theaters nationwide.
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