Following the successes of Walt Disney Studios’ Moana and Moana 2, Auli’i Cravalho hit a new personal milestone—being able to buy her mother a house.
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“I bought my mommy a house. She’s happily retired,” she told People. “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.”
Cravalho told the outlet that the house purchase was such a big deal because she and her family lived on food stamps while growing up.
“We lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Mililani when I was cast [in Moana],” she said. “I slept in the bedroom, my mom slept on the couch. She gave me everything.”
Cravalho’s parents, Dwayne and Puanani, who ran a construction company in Hawaii and divorced when she was younger, helped her with valuable life lessons as she went from being a Kamehameha Schools student to a Disney star over the past decade.
“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 recalled.
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Cravalho also admitted the attention from Moana got to her head at one point. She said she would sometimes “be a little s**t” when it came to doing school work after the film premiered.
“I’d be a little gremlin,” she further admitted. “I’m going to be honest, I didn’t have anything left… 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.”
Cravalho said that her mom helped fix the attitude.
“She was the one to discipline,” Cravalho said. “She was the one to really support me right then and there.”
Cravalho added, “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,’” she continued.
Eight years after Moana premiered, Cravalho returned as the star in the film’s sequel alongside Dwayne Johnson, Teruera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Rachel House, and Alan Tudyk. So far, Moana 2 has surpassed $423.6 million at the box office.
In the sequel, Moana journeys to the far seas of Oceania after an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors. Everyone’s favorite demigod, Maui, assists her on this latest adventure, along with Heihei and Pua.