Vaiana, the Legend of the End of the World: “It was really a beautiful way to honor our culture”

He is the insolent demigod Maui, she plays Moana, a young warrior on the water. Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga’aia talk about filming Moana.

The live action version of the animated film on Polynesian mythology, Vaiana, the Legend of the End of the World, therefore landed in theaters last Wednesday. At the head of the gondola, a hairy Dwayne Johnson accompanied by a new actress. They were the ones we had the opportunity to meet briefly during a video junket.

Sitting in front of a beach setting and via screen, the two actors (Dwayne Johnson then Catherine Laga’aia) answered journalists’ questions. In theHospitality roomwhile everyone is getting impatient, while Dwayne Johnson is waiting, suddenly the cameras turn on, the actor is finally here and everyone is preparing to throw their question into this virtual round table.

True to his reputation, The Rock, all smiles, with his impressive build, open shirt and a flower necklace around his neck, responds with kindness and without restraint to his audience.

In the animated film he voiced the insolent demigod Maui, but in the live-action version he physically embodies this Hercules of the Pacific. A character inspired by his grandfather, the Great Chief Peter Maivia, originally from Samoa and also a wrestler…

“I always knew that my grandfather was the inspiration for the character of Maui, but I understood it very differently in live action and I knew it from the first day of filming” declares the actor with his voice that capsizes, full of emotion. “You see, I need to catch my breath, I really gave the best of myself on the film set, (…), it was really a great way to honor him and more broadly to honor our culture.”

Obviously, with this somewhat rascally, slightly lunar Demigod character, the actor plays on his image (the athletic and muscular former wrestler). And when we ask him if he doesn’t have the impression of being typecast, typecast as they say, the actor responds directly. “That’s a good question. I don’t know if I’m still typecast today. Within the walls of Hollywood (you know it’s a very small world), even though there are new actors and directors emerging, I feel like they know what I can do as an actor and what I’m willing to do. In this sense, ‘Smashing Machine’ helped me a lot”.

For her part, Catherine Laga’aia, 19 years old, dons the very real costume of Moana. Surely a little less accustomed to the camera than her co-actor, she faces the journalists in a white dress, with a little more apprehension. To the question of pressure, she answers

WhoThere’s a lot of pressure because we want to be as faithful as possible to the animated character. (…) I felt a lot of pressure playing Moana because I wanted to do her justice, but I think we brought a lot of new aspects and new elements. In this way, I was able to bring my touch to the character. I was able to reclaim it without compromising it.”

This is her first major role and the young woman dances, sings… Always with the desire to represent Polynesian culture as faithfully as possible.

(…) the last thing you want to do is offend or misrepresent the people you’re doing this for, so we had a team that worked really hard to make sure we presented things authentically. For example, she made sure that you respected the traditions and all the different cultures that we represented.”

This live-action version is directed by Thomas Kail, a filmmaker with very Western origins.

Catherine continues: “The teams were always around Tommy. He often said ‘as a guest of this culture’ because he’s not from the Pacific Islands and he wanted to make sure we were doing things in the best and most appropriate way possible.

A very real Moana and Maui, determined to make the voice of the Pacific heard.