THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY: THE LITTLE MERMAID LIVE, ABC!

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The Little Mermaid Live! was submitted in fourteen categories for this year's Primetime Emmys:

• Outstanding Variety Special (Live)
The Little Mermaid Live!
This tribute to the animated classic takes viewers on a magical adventure under the sea as live musicalperformances by a star-studded cast are interwoven into the original feature film.

• Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special
The Little Mermaid Live!
This tribute to the animated classic takes viewers on a magical adventure under the sea as live musicalperformances by a star-studded cast are interwoven into the original feature film

• Outstanding Casting for a Limited Series, Movie or Special
The Little Mermaid Live!
This tribute to the animated classic takes viewers on a magical adventure under the sea as live musicalperformances by a star-studded cast are interwoven into the original feature film.
Starring: Auli’i Cravalho, Shaggy, Graham Phillips, Amber Riley, John Stamos, Queen Latifah

• Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program
The Little Mermaid Live!
This special tribute to the animated classic takes viewers on a magical adventure under the sea as livemusical performances by a star-studded cast are interwoven into the original feature film.

• Outstanding Period and/or Character Hairstyling
The Little Mermaid Live!
Synopsis
Done + Dusted
Technical Description
The 36 ensemble and lead actors had 3 makeup changes during commercials in 3 minutes or less,requiring artist teams working together to complete. Ariel’s incandescent glow achieved withfoundations, mixed shimmer, seamless blush, light shading, defined eyebrows and eyeshadow withdefused eyeliner, flair lashes framed doe shaped eyes. Reddish-rose lipsticks completed her etherealbeauty. Ursula’s half theatrics, half fashion look used dark elongated eyeliner and shadow pulled outtoward temples, glitter lashes with rhinestone eyelids captured a wink of light to eyes, burgundy-purplelip color topped her image. Chief Louie’s vintage character was created with cheek-to-cheek moustache,hand-stroked eyebrows and sparse sideburns. Daughters of Triton costume matched bright pigment,metallic powders randomly applied to eyes, cheekbones and forehead. Glowing foundations, luminousblush with shimmer lipstick. Metallic-lace, stencils and reflective- adhesive designs judiciously used onensemble in the performance Under the Sea.

• Outstanding Contemporary Makeup for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program (Non-Prosthetic)
The Little Mermaid Live!
Synopsis
Done + Dusted
Technical Description
The 36 ensemble and lead actors had 3 makeup changes during commercials in 3 minutes or less,requiring artist teams working together to complete. Ariel’s incandescent glow achieved withfoundations, mixed shimmer, seamless blush, light shading, defined eyebrows and eyeshadow withdefused eyeliner, flair lashes framed doe shaped eyes. Reddish-rose lipsticks completed her etherealbeauty. Ursula’s half theatrics, half fashion look used dark elongated eyeliner and shadow pulled outtoward temples, glitter lashes with rhinestone eyelids captured a wink of light to eyes, burgundy-purplelip color topped her image. Chief Louie’s vintage character was created with cheek-to-cheek moustache,hand-stroked eyebrows and sparse sideburns. Daughters of Triton costume matched bright pigment,metallic powders randomly applied to eyes, cheekbones and forehead. Glowing foundations, luminousblush with shimmer lipstick. Metallic-lace, stencils and reflective- adhesive designs judiciously used onensemble in the performance Under the Sea.

• Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special
The Little Mermaid Live!
This special tribute to the animated classic takes viewers on a magical adventure under the sea as livemusical performances by a star-studded cast are interwoven into the original feature film.

• Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special
The Little Mermaid Live!
This special tribute to the animated classic takes viewers on a magical adventure under the sea as livemusical performances by a star-studded cast are interwoven into the original feature film.


• Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Special
The Little Mermaid Live!
This special tribute to the animated classic takes viewers on a magical adventure under the sea as livemusical performances by a star-studded cast are interwoven into the original feature film.

Outstanding Commercial ("Rehearsal")
Rehearsal - The Little Mermaid Live

• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie (Auli’I Cravalho as Ariel)
Auli’I Cravalho as Ariel
The Little Mermaid Live!

• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie (Queen Latifah as Ursula)
Queen Latifah as Ursula
The Little Mermaid Live!

• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (Shaggy as Sebastian)
Shaggy as Sebastian
The Little Mermaid Live!

• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (John Stamos as Chef Louis)
John Stamos as Chef Louis
The Little Mermaid Live!

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From Youtube:

Shake your Fins with Shaggy to this "Under the Sea" Tune!
6.494 visualizzazioni• 5 ago 2020

GRAMMY® award-winning music artist Shaggy has a special performance from his home just for Disney Parks fans. So let’s celebrate the animated classic The Little Mermaid with a tune that anyone can swim along to.

For more musical magic, stop by the Disney Parks Blog or follow #DisneyMagicMoments.

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From Deadline:

‘The Little Mermaid Live!’ Production Designer Misty Buckley Crafts Immersive “Sunken Theater” For Live TV Musical
By Matt Grobar

Matt Grobar
Assistant Editor, Awardsline

August 24, 2020 9:15am



On The Little Mermaid Live!, production designer Misty Buckley offered up a fresh visual take on a classic fairy tale, aiming to transport viewers into an underwater world, with sets designed for the stage.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Disney’s animated film, the live musical special intercut footage from that beloved Oscar winner with fantastical live-action sequences, filmed within a theatre in the round. Using the 1989 film as a starting point for her designs, the production designer’s goal with the special was then to elevate it with a sense of “otherworldy theatricality.”

Below, the first-time Emmy nominee reflects on building a “sunken theater” for the live TV musical, and the logistics involved in pulling it off.

DEADLINE: How did you get involved with The Little Mermaid Live!? What excited you about designing it?


ABC/Mitch Haaseth

MISTY BUCKLEY: I was invited to work on the project by Hamish Hamilton, director and producer, and it was just an amazing opportunity because it’s one of those stories that we’ve all grown up with. So, to be able to take it and give it my own aesthetic, whilst keeping true to Disney, was just a total dream.

DEADLINE: What did you discuss with Hamilton and other key creatives early on, in terms of a visual direction for the show?

BUCKLEY: Early on, we agreed that we wanted to create an immersive experience. We knew we couldn’t do a show with a ton of water, so we discussed the aesthetic and how we would immerse the audience in a theater that has been submerged underwater. The idea is that you’d stumbled into a beautiful opera house that was sunken 100 years ago or something, and once you’d established that narrative, everything else just fell into place because we’d established our world. We used lots of effects [in] lighting and projection to make you feel like you’re above water or below water. But that was a very early discussion.

DEADLINE: Can you expand on the thinking behind your designs for the stage, and how everything was laid out?

BUCKLEY: The ambition was to create a piece of work that always had movement in it, without that movement being reliant on a screen all the time. We have lots of vertical movement and aerialists. So, jellyfish, all sorts of flown props would come in that made you feel like they were floating, and the actual stage was designed as a proscenium show. As I said, we had this sunken theater. So, we created a proscenium with a thrust that was through the audience, and it was very fluid in its movement and shape.

There were all sorts of lifts, and hidden, secret, little traps for people to pop up. There were special effects, puppets, lighting, all sort of hidden in the staging itself. So, that was quite a complex design process because I had to make sure that we could accommodate the puppets and the puppeteers, as well as have special effects close to them, whilst obviously remaining safe. As well, we created a complete 360-degree theater. So, we built these arches all the way around the room. We had front of house hidden, and lighting desks hidden amongst those arches, so the whole environment felt complete, like you really were transported to somewhere else.

DEADLINE: Were any musical sequences particularly challenging to design for?


ABC/Mitch Haaseth

BUCKLEY: “Part of Your World” was particularly challenging because it’s such a loved scene in the movie, so we had to get the right balance of what was in the cave of her collections, and the scale of that, because everything’s a little bit bigger in the movie. But we wanted to get a sense of realism, as well, because we were on the stage, and we didn’t want Ariel to be dwarfed by loads of enormous props.

So, we played with scale a lot, and everything had a playfulness about it. That gave it that otherworldly theatricality, which was part of our initial brief, and we kept revisiting that like, have we gone far enough with this? Are we pushing the boundaries? That was really fun.

I had an amazing art director, Joe Celli, and set decorator, Jason Howard. All my drawings and sketches, where everything started out, they were brilliant at staying really true to that and bringing it to life, and honestly, I just couldn’t have achieved half of it without them. They were extraordinary, like saintly. [Laughs]

DEADLINE: How did you go about building the enormous props you mentioned, like the pair of glasses we see hanging above Ariel?

BUCKLEY: We’d start with a drawing, and then it would become three-dimensional. Then, Joe Celli would take all those drawings and do the 3D CAD system, and then take them to the shop. And there was a rigorous process of, what was the finish of the glasses? Did the glasses have a little break in them? Like, the level of detail on this show, all the way through every single thing, was extraordinary. The amount of coral, what kind of coral, how the coral was art directed onto the rock formations.

It really was another level. It was as if we were doing a real, detailed movie—but then we were, in a way, because we were creating a stage show that was also primarily a television show. So, it was getting that balance, so there was enough ‘Wow’ factor for the wide shot and for everybody in the room to feel it. But then you had to zoom right in on the detail for those little close-ups. Everything was so important, so it was really a lot.

DEADLINE: “Kiss the Girl” was another remarkable sequence, featuring Ariel and Sebastian rowing through a marsh, surrounded by greenery and fireflies.


ABC/Mitch Haaseth

BUCKLEY: What was so dreamy about “Kiss the Girl” was bringing it out into the audience, and the audience becoming this kind of beautiful sea lake environment. As they traveled through, we created lots of different moments. So, they’d go through the hanging willow, and then there were jellyfish, and the birds, and the puppets and everything. How it appeared, there was a real sequence, and so having to nail that sequence was really challenging.

It was all constantly revisiting the action, the camera shots, what are we going to see, how are we telling the story, and seeing it from all these different angles, because we were constantly shooting in the round, basically. It was like, “Oh gosh, we’ve caught that in the back of the shot. Quick, we need another lobster.” [Laughs] So, it’s just making sure that every shot felt really rich, and when it needed to be, it was really saturated.

DEADLINE: What made The Little Mermaid Live! different from projects you’d designed in the past?

BUCKLEY: Where we started, a really interesting process, which I’ve not done before on a show like this, is that each scene had its own color palette. And we set that color palette really early on, so that each scene had its own [visual identity in relation to the film]. Then, you enhanced them and maybe oversaturated some of them, but we kept quite true to the colors. So, “Under the Sea” was all kind of oranges and pinks, and then “Les Poissons” was red and black and white, so it was very French, but then it had this big copper pan from a French kitchen.

DEADLINE: It must have been challenging, having to work with fairly limited stage space.

BUCKLEY: We had to get the scenery to work really, really hard because there was limited space, so we created this modular rock formation. The core of it was used for “Daughters of Triton,” and then when we went to “Under the Sea,” we expanded it and added more layers. And then, when we got to “Les Poissons,” we turned the whole thing around, and the other side of it was this giant French oven. There were staircases in and out, and at the same time, you had entrances and exits and egress for the puppeteers, and then you had characters coming in and out.

It was so busy, and we just had to have the most extraordinary stage management to get everything off. I mean, it was like a French farce backstage. You’ve never seen so many kinds of costumes flying, and props and scenery. It was just out of this world. But I think all that energy came across on stage, and then the audience obviously responded to that. So, it felt like we were always on high energy and high color, and the right color palette.

ABC/Mitch Haaseth

DEADLINE: Did you have any anxiety about the live aspect to this production? Or did you feel assured that everything would come together smoothly?

BUCKLEY: I just took it as a really great and interesting challenge. I think when you’ve managed to get an Olympic ceremony all laid out in the room in like nine minutes, you’re like, “Okay, I can deal with a bit of pressure.” [Laughs] It’s just always brilliant when you do a lot of touring and TV shows, which are fantastic. But then when someone comes to you with a beautiful narrative script and a piece of work that’s so loved by so many, inviting you to interpret that and bring your own flair, that is the dream job, because you’re given all the magical elements. Then, you’ve just got to make a really amazing cake out of it. So, I actually have to credit the team that put it together. The set builders, the scenic artists, were absolutely, mind-blowingly brilliant. Everybody just pulled it out of the bag and created this extraordinary show, and I’m really proud of it.

DEADLINE: What did it mean to you to land your first Emmy nomination for this special?

BUCKLEY: It’s a real honor to be nominated. When I see all the other people in the other categories, I feel really grateful, and I’m really grateful for the team because the Emmy’s for all of us—Joe Celli, and Jason Howard, and all our extended team who worked on it. I really have never seen an art department work so hard and under such intense conditions, and I really hope that they get it.

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From HollywoodLife:

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
OCTOBER 30, 2020 8:00AM EDT
Auli’i Cravalho Reveals She’s Ready To‘Really Hone’ Her Skills As An Actor AfterMany Musical Roles

Avery Thompson
ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR

Auli’i Cravalho loves to sing, but she’s ready to fully focus on her acting career. She spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HL about her upcoming show, why it’s a ‘dream project’ for her, and more.

Auli’i Cravalho has made a name for herself with her singing roles in projects like Moana, Rise, All Together Now, and The Little Mermaid Live! Music is near and dear to her heart, but the 19-year-old told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY that she thinks it’s time to tackle her acting career in full force.

“I have been so blessed to sing and dance my little heart out on many projects, but now I get to really hone in on my skills as an actor,” Auli’i told HollywoodLife while discussing her King’s Hawaiian partnership. “That’s something that consistently challenges me more than singing does because that kind of comes from my soul, whereas acting I have to worry about my face. Like, does it look natural when my arms are like this? Why does suddenly standing feels so strange? I have to relearn my body in a way.”


Auli’i Cravalho at the ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ premiere. (AP)

Her next role is in the upcoming Amazon Prime series The Power. The actress is so excited to be working with incredible women both in front of the camera and behind it. “I’ll be working with Leslie Mann and Reed Morano, who directed The Handmaid’s Tale as well,” Auli’i told HollywoodLife. “It’s based off of a book by Naomi Alderman, and it’s about this different world where girls suddenly have this power to electrocute people at will. It’s about the power of that electrocution, but also to see how the power in communities and across the world when women have kind of an inherent upper hand over the other sex. It’s a really interesting project.”


Auli’i Cravalho in her new Netflix film. (Netflix)

The Power is set to have an all-female writers room, which means a lot to the young actress. “It’s so important to have women written by women,” Auli’i said. “I’m young in this industry, and I’m so excited to talk to a woman director and to have more open communication about my character and to know that my character, Joss, is multi layered. She’s not just one thing because women are not just one thing. So to have a deeper sense of commitment to this role, and a really great connection to the writers and the director as well, it really is a dream project for me.”

Disney is giving so many of their animated classics the live-action treatment — Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and more. She revealed her latest thoughts on the possibility of a live-action Moana. “I mean, Moana came out in 2016. I think we can wait a little bit longer before a live-action version,” Auli’i told HollywoodLife. “I gotta say, I still think it’s a really great film as it is animated, but absolutely. I think representation and casting are so important, so I would love to see a beautiful Brown young heroine onscreen someday.”

Auli’i also opened up about her partnership with King’s Hawaiian, a company that is close to her heart. “I grew up in Hawaii and King’s Hawaiian bread was always a treat for my family growing up. I’m super excited to help celebrate their 70th anniversary and their tradition of giving back through A (French) Toast to Breakfast. It’s a special program with No Kid Hungry. This will help provide up to half a million meals to kids in need, and I really love that anyone can make a difference by hosting their own french toast fundraiser in their hometown. To make the bake sale proceeds go even further for No Kid Hungry, King’s Hawaiian is matching all donations up to $25,000 from bake sale participants between November 16 and November 23. I am so proud to be supporting this. I mean, it really feels perfect. I grew up eating this bread, and it has a beautiful, charitable aspect to it. So I can’t think of a reason not to eat this.”

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From The Things.com:

Here's What Auli'i Cravalho's Been Up To Since 'Moana'
Luckily for Auli'i Cravalho, 'Moana' was just the start of her career.

BY ERYNN RUIZ
1 DAY AGO

When she came on the scene with 'Moana' in 2016, no one knew who Auli'i Cravalho was. But she captured fans' attention with her singing talent and the way she brought the titular character to life.

'Moana' was a first in many ways, modern even for Disney. And it was career-defining for Cravalho, too. Though Lin Manuel Miranda literally wrote songs for The Rock for the film, Auli'i's talent brought multiple songs on the soundtrack to life.

What happened to her after the hubbub around the film died down, though? What has Auli'i Cravalho been up to the last four years, and what will come next?

'Moana' may have been Auli'i's ticket to Hollywood, but she hasn't gotten off the bus yet. After 'Moana' wrapped, the star (whose full name is Chloe Auli'i Cravalho) went on to enjoy countless appearances on stage and in films as the voice of Moana.

She's probably sung "How Far I'll Go" at least a hundred times by now, and she even had a cameo as Moana in 'Ralph Breaks the Internet.'

Then, Auli'i was cast in a TV series through 2018. She played Lilette Suarez on 'Rise,' which was a stark contrast from the closer-to-life role of a sort-of-Hawaiian Moana (Cravalho grew up in Hawaii). In 2019, Auli'i played another Latina character, Rayna Perez on 'Weird City.'

But the same year, Auli'i was thrust into the spotlight again in 'The Little Mermaid Live!,' a TV movie. The star-studded cast also included John Stamos, Queen Latifah, Shaggy, and plenty of other high-profile stars.

Critics' reception of the "Live" show wasn't great. Hollywood Reporter called it "a deflating experience" and said the "live" or "hybrid" model was a letdown. Instead of truly showcasing the actors' (including Auli'i's) talent, the journalist complained, there was far too much cutting away to the original film and too little actual acting.

The good news for Auli'i is that her career trajectory didn't stop at being a two-time master of the ocean as both Moana and Ariel. 2020 saw her on TV again, in 'Day by Day' and the special 'Acting for a Cause.' Then she graced the "big" screen (as a non-animated character) in 'All Together Now.'

She even appeared in Teen Vogue to discuss the Netflix film, posed for Seventeen, and came out on TikTok (well, and Twitter, too), noted Inside the Magic. The 19-year-old star has also campaigned for her peers to vote, traveled to Kenya for philanthropy, and promoted BLM messages on Instagram.

And things won't slow down in 2020 for Cravalho. Her next project is a TV series called 'The Power,' which is currently in pre-production. But of course, you can't expect every project of Auli'i's to be Disney-sweet these days.

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Source: hauteliving.com/2019/11/graham-phillips-prince-eric-abc-little-mermaid-live/675589/

How Heartthrob Graham Philips Landed The Role Of Prince Eric In ABC’s “The Little Mermaid Live!”

Celebrities, News
November 4, 2019

by Laura Schreffler


Photo Credit: F. Scott Schafer

Graham Phillips is about to steal not just one heart, but many, when he becomes Prince Eric in ABC’s “Little Mermaid Live!” tomorrow, November 5. The 26-year-old SoCal native will star and sing alongside Auli’i Cravalho (Ariel), Queen Latifah (Ursula) and John Stamos (Chef Louis) in the highly-anticipated network show based on Disney’s animated favorite about a mermaid who gives up her voice for a pair of sea legs and finds love in the process.

Aside from playing a charming prince, Phillips is slated to have a monumental 2020. With projects like “The Good Wife” and “Evan Almighty,” among others, under his belt, he’ll also direct the feature film,” Rumble Through the Dark.” Along with his brother, Parker, he’ll also executive produce an original drama series with Michael Farris Smith, as well as a thriller series based on John Hart’s “New York Times” best-selling novel, “Redemption Road.” And this week, he’ll even return to “Riverdale” to reprise his role as bad boy Nick St. Clair.

Here, we chat with this charming and charismatic Princeton grad about playing a prince, returning to “Riverdale” and his directorial debut.

Graham Phillips is about to steal not just one heart, but many, when he becomes Prince Eric in ABC’s “Little Mermaid Live!” tomorrow, November 5. The 26-year-old SoCal native will star and sing alongside Auli’i Cravalho (Ariel), Queen Latifah (Ursula) and John Stamos (Chef Louis) in the highly-anticipated network show based on Disney’s animated favorite about a mermaid who gives up her voice for a pair of sea legs and finds love in the process.

Aside from playing a charming prince, Phillips is slated to have a monumental 2020. With projects like “The Good Wife” and “Evan Almighty,” among others, under his belt, he’ll also direct the feature film,” Rumble Through the Dark.” Along with his brother, Parker, he’ll also executive produce an original drama series with Michael Farris Smith, as well as a thriller series based on John Hart’s “New York Times” best-selling novel, “Redemption Road.” And this week, he’ll even return to “Riverdale” to reprise his role as bad boy Nick St. Clair.

Here, we chat with this charming and charismatic Princeton grad about playing a prince, returning to “Riverdale” and his directorial debut.


Graham PhilipsPhoto Credit: ABC

You’ve been cast as ‘Prince Eric’ in Little Mermaid Live. Tell us about how your character will fit in to this live production… will it be different from the Disney film?

In the original film, you don’t really get to hear much from Prince Eric—he doesn’t even sing throughout the entire film (though he does play a flute once or twice). Lucky for me, for this version, they’ve pulled a couple of songs that Alan Menken wrote for the Broadway adaptation and has rearranged for our show. Perhaps I’m biased, but I do think that it adds a bit more potency to the story to check in with what’s going on in the Prince’s mind. It is a love story after all and most of the best love stories tend to touch on both parties. In these new songs, it’s also neat to see how the Prince is going through something more similar to Ariel than you’d expect. The whole idea of him escaping his responsibilities within the castle walls to go exploring the unknown on a ship feels like the mirror of Ariel’s journey from her underwater castle to the land. They’re both at a time in their lives where they seem to have everything, and yet they’re still reaching out, yearning for something they can’t quite put their finger on. The fact that thing they’re looking for is (spoiler alert) love, and that they find it in someone so foreign, is the soul of the piece to me, so it’s nice that the Prince gets to share his side of the story.
What was the audition process like for this role? What were the producers looking for that they found in you?

Hmm… I’m not sure if they even knew what they were looking for to be honest, but I’d been working on the Prince’s big song, “Her Voice,” for a few weeks before I got the call to come in. After I sang it they got up and gave me a hug and thanked me. I wasn’t sure if that meant I had the role but I thought it would have been a pretty weird thing for them to have done if I didn’t… Thankfully it worked out. I’ve been on plenty of auditions and screen tests where I would have put money down that I’d booked it and it ended up going another way, so I did my best not to count my chickens…

Who was the biggest trip to meet/hang out with from the cast? Was it all professional 24/7 or did you have some downtime to get to know them (and if the latter, who did you click with the most and why)?

Hard to pick just one… Queen Latifah and Shaggy were probably the biggest trip just because I’m fans of them both and had never met either of them, whereas I know Auli’i and John through our singing teacher Eric Vetro. And we’re certainly not professional 24/7… Everyone seems to have embraced the celebratory nature of the show, so while we’re all working hard to make the fans happy, we also know that if we’re not enjoying ourselves up there, then we’re kind of missing the whole point. It’s also hard not to have a fun time with all the crazy aerial designs and puppets and set pieces coming in each day.


Graham Philips Photo Credit: F. Scott Schafer

You have experience in both theater and TV/film and “Little Mermaid Live!” has pieces of both. How do you feel about doing a live TV performance? Is it different than preparing for just a TV show or just for theater? How are you preparing?

I’m just treating it like a theater performance as far as my prep goes, which basically just means running it as many times as I can and keeping my voice in good shape. I’ve also done a bit of sailing and swimming just to get myself in the aquatic mindset. I also always wanted to learn to sail, so maybe it’s more of that than me being method… One difference from theater is that even though it’s filmed in front of a live audience, you have to be aware of the camera angles. The body language you might use in a wide shot might not hold up or even register in a close up, so we’ve been keeping a good dialogue going with Hamish, our director. The most important thing at this point is to keep your nervous system from freaking out, so focusing on the joy that comes with a performance like this, rather than the ten thousand things that can go wrong is important. No one likes a tense, nervous prince…

You are not only acting but directing, writing and producing as well. Was that always the plan? How did you go from acting to behind the camera work, and what is it like doing this with your brother?

I’ve always wanted to explore the other side of the camera. I’ve been obsessed with cameras since I was about five years old and when I was in my teens that began to translate into a passion for cinematography and a curiosity for directing. I always wanted to work with my brother—mainly because our personalities and skill sets compliment each other and we have near identical taste—but we had to wait until I graduated to really dig deep. We’d done a short film earlier, but you need more than a summer to put together a full length feature, which was our goal. Funny enough, we didn’t set out to write our own film, but when we realized how unlikely it was for us to find a script that both suited our own tastes and had already been written, we figured, what the heck, we’ll give it a go. I was writing my thesis at the time on Native American resistance to colonialism and the related systemic violence they continue to endure, and we wanted to do a modern day western that wasn’t as blindly one sided as the westerns of yore, so we began to build from that. We tried to turn a lot of outdated stereotypes on their head while keeping the essence of what makes the western genre so entertaining and we ended up with a sort of thriller-love story between a cowboy and a Native girl over the backdrop of the North Dakota oil fracking boom. There’s a lot of the old iconic west trying to find its way in a modern world, thus the title, “The Bygone.”

Did you enjoy directing your first film? Is it something you’d like to replicate again soon, and if so, are you actively looking for projects?

I had a fantastic time directing. I was also the lead of the film, so I was leaning on my brother for most of the scenes I was in when I couldn’t be behind the monitor. We were both struck by the collaborative nature of it all. You have this team of one hundred people and if you take any of them out of the mix, the whole operation falls apart, logistically and creatively. So for us, it’s as much about our love for people as it is our love for bringing a vision to life. We certainly caught the bug and are looking forward to our next project, currently titled “Rumble Through The Dark.” It’s based on a gripping novel by Michael Farris Smith called “The Fighter,” and it follows a middle aged bare knuckle cage fighter in the Mississippi Delta as he fights to get out of debt to this incredible character named Big Momma Sweet, and get his elderly foster mother back into the foreclosed home she raised him in. It’s a touching and inspiring story about a part of the country we don’t tend to think about with a lot of history. I guess you could say that’s becoming one of our themes.


Graham Philips Photo Credit: F. Scott Schafer

What would you like to do in the future career-wise that you haven’t yet tried?

I wouldn’t mind directing some pieces for the stage. I directed a production of “Once” back in college and I really enjoyed that experience, even though I was writing my thesis at the same time, so I must have really liked it. My whole career started in the theater, so any time I get to come back to that I end up feeling more whole. Again, it’s really about the collaboration and getting close with people while, ideally, putting the ego aside.

It seems like philanthropic work is important to you as well and you have spent quite a bit of time working with Oceana. How did you decide to get involved with them and what do you do with the organization?

Once of our closest family friends, the Cahills, have been heavily involved with them for quite a while and host a spectacular fundraiser at their home every year. Considering I grew up in Laguna Beach with a love for the ocean, it seemed an obvious outlet for my energy, especially after hearing so many of the sobering anecdotes and statistics. I’d written a junior paper on the history of marine mammal conservation so it was already on my radar but the events they were hosting helped to highlight ways to help. Apart from performing at the fundraisers, we do beach cleanups and help to raise awareness about the policy decisions most affecting our oceans.

What is something even friends might be surprised to learn about you?

I couldn’t think of anything so I asked my brother. Here’s what he sent… “You have a night light in your room, you sing Bobby Darin in the shower, you used to collect rocks, you sleep with your legs crossed and you have to consciously try and not walk on your toes.”


Graham Philips Photo Credit: F. Scott Schafer

You went to Princeton majoring in history – which seems at odds with your career in entertainment. What would you like to do with your degree in the future?

Well, I feel like history is storytelling in its own right. There’s no such thing as a truly objective history and so the ‘storytellers’ perspective always ends up leaving its mark. I honestly just always liked history and was thankful to have history teachers from a pretty young age that (mostly) didn’t make me want to gauge my eyes out.

What’s next for you project-wise after “The Bygone” and “Little Mermaid Live!”?

Apart from “Rumble Through The Dark,” my brother Parker and I have two pilots we’re shopping around that we’re quite excited about. And on the acting side of things, it looks like I’ll be going back on “Riverdale” in the next week or so and I actually just got word this morning that I might be working on a rather exciting comedy but, alas, I’d prefer not to count those chickens…

What to you is the greatest luxury in life and why?

The greatest luxury in life is the luxury of detachment—to have the time and space away from your usual rhythms to reflect with clarity on what is working and what needs to change, if anything. More often than not, less needs to change than you think. When I get to spend time with my father, it’s golf. With the mama, it’s horseback riding. When it’s just me, it’s a morning paddle board in Laguna.

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Source: www.teenvogue.com/story/crush-star-aulii-cravalho-talks-unapologetic-queerness-and-having-never-seen-a-rom-com

Culture
"Crush" Star Auli'i Cravalho Talks Unapologetic Queerness, Ursula, and Having Never Seen a Rom-Com
Teen Vogue caught up with Auli’i Cravalho to discuss her new coming-of-age film Crush.
BY KAITLYN MCNAB

APRIL 29, 2022

Auli'i Cravalho has never seen a rom-com. For anyone else, this revelation might just be a preference of genre. But for the star of Crush, one of the year's most promising coming-of-age romantic comedies, it's a bit of a surprising offense.

“I don't think I've watched a rom-com,” Auli'i tells Teen Vogue sheepishly when asked what her favorite rom-com of all-time is. From off-screen of the Zoom window, one can hear faint, albeit rueful, laughter. “I— Really, I swear to God. My manager's laughing at me right now. She's covering her face with both of her hands, so disappointed, because she's tried to get me to watch — what is it called?”

“When Harry Met Sally," says Auli'i's manager in the background. “My Best Friend's Wedding."

“My favorite rom-com is Crush, duh," Auli'i says hastily, grinning. Duh.

While not yet as iconic as a rom-com titan like When Harry Met Sally, Crush does have the potential to become a cult queer classic.

Crush, which premieres today (April 29), follows teen artist Paige Evans (played by Rowan Blanchard) as she joins her high school's track team in an effort to win the affection of her long-time crush — and the school's star athlete — Gabriela Campos (Isabella Ferreira). But when the track coach pairs Paige up to train with her teammate AJ (Auli'i), who happens to be Gabriela's twin sister, Paige ends up catching feelings instead of passing batons. Soon enough, Paige unintentionally finds herself in the middle of a disastrous love triangle that will teach her what it really feels like to be in love.

Auli'i's character AJ Campos is a moodily mysterious skater, the “brooding leather jacket type” according to Rowan’s character Paige — a stark contrast to Auli'i's own bubbly and animated demeanor. But being able to temporarily don a “brooding leather jacket” is exactly what drew Auli’i to AJ.

“I always want to play characters that challenge me and that either touch a part of myself that I haven't touched in a while, or that is just new for me,” Auli’i says, praising the differences between her and her character. “Her humor is also very straight. That's maybe the straightest thing about her, that she just plays it face on and very dry.”

One of the similarities that does exist between Auli'i and AJ is that both young women are bisexual. Back in the spring of 2020, Auli'i nearly broke the Internet by coming out in a lip-syncing TikTok.

After her initial read of the script, the 21-year-old actor and singer says she immediately knew she wanted to play AJ, partly because of the character's resilience and courageous vulnerability but also because of how normal she is. Crush may seem like your run-of-the-mill rom-com… and that's because it is, in the most powerful way possible.

“Our film comes out [in April]. It isn't necessarily baited in Pride Month… our messaging is that it is a teen coming-of-age rom com. Period,” declares Auli'i. “[It] tackles — if you need to use that word — LGBTQ issues and we speak on bi erasure a little bit, [but] it is just joyful, and it isn't wrapped up in a pretty rainbow bow.”

Though aesthetically similar to 2018's Love, Simon, the plot of Crush doesn't once center around a coming-out story. Crush lives in the “after,” beyond a young person's coming out day, which is arguably a blank space in film and TV's queer teen representation that is yearning to be filled. Crush proves that queer teens can get tangled up in low-stakes love triangles, can have regular love stories, and can exist beyond the day that they come out. The film's variety of queer characters, both speaking and non-speaking, made for what Auli'i calls a “vibrant” experience on-set.

“I realized our writers, Kirsten King and Casey Rackham, are also queer. And then our director, Sammi Cohen, is also queer. And the rest of the cast, or many of us, anyway, are queer and are also out,” says Auli'i. “We're living this story. We have our experiences. We are all a little camp and a little fruity, and it's just fun to play in that space.”

The safety of that space is what allowed Auli'i to dive deep into her character, from training in track and learning how to skateboard to building a character history and creating memories for AJ — as well as a firm decision to declare AJ as a Scorpio. ("In my first few discussions with Sammi, I was like, 'I feel like she's a Scorpio. You know? She feels a lot of feelings and she's a little crazy when she gets in love,'" recalls Auli'i, who quick to assert that she herself is a Sagittarius.)

When asked who some of her favorite queer characters in film and TV are, Auli'i cites The Little Mermaid's Ursula and the queer characters of Schitt's Creek — but it's more young characters like AJ that Auli'i believes will continue to push the needle of queer storytelling and queer teen representation.

“I hope to see characters that are happy and aren't left with residual trauma and aren't forced into a box,” Auli'i shares. "I just hope to see myself, as well, play women who are the women that I see in my everyday life, who are intelligent and speak their minds and [believe] ‘no’ is a whole sentence in itself."

Seeing a diverse spectrum of the people you know in real life reflected on-screen is what Auli'i calls “honest representation," a feat she's proud of her cast and crew for achieving with Crush. The only other thing she's more proud of? The unapologetic gayness of it all.

“I like that [Crush] is gay! If you didn't know that people were gay, now you know people are gay. People are gay,” Auli'i says matter-of-factly. “And I hope we see more films that just portray everyday life of a queer person because it might be boring, it might be interesting, but it's real, and that's beautiful.”

And queer people deserve real, too.

Crush is now available to stream on Hulu.

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Source: Twitter

NEW:
@auliicravalho on #DarbyAndTheDead, the wild way she learned she’d play Moana, and beating nerves to perform The Little Mermaid Live: di.sn/60073DwXZ
Spotify: spoti.fi/3aBF8Zj
Apple: apple.co/2NQOLda
Amazon: amzn.to/35pgoWH
#D23InsideDisney

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Source: d23.com/podcast/d23-inside-disney-episode-169/

D23 Inside Disney Episode 169 | Auli’i Cravalho on Darby and the Dead
DECEMBER 8, 2022
D23 Inside Disney



Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 28:08 | Recorded on December 8, 2022

Big Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny reveals; Marvel Studios has released a first look at Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3; a new trailer for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania has been released; Walt Disney Animation Studios debuted the first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short in nearly 95 years; early details have been released for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure; season two of Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom is coming; season three of The Mandalorian gets a premiere date; and CMA Country Christmas will return to ABC. Plus, the delightful Auli’i Cravalho on her to-die-for role in Darby and the Dead, the wild way she learned she’d play Moana, and beating nerves to perform The Little Mermaid Live!

More episodes of D23 Inside Disney


Podcast here: d23.com/podcast/d23-inside-disney-episode-169/

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