Auli’i Cravalho Tells ‘Wicked’ Press Tour Critics to “Get Off My Girls Ariana and Cynthia’s Backs”

Auli’i Cravalho has no patience for those who make fun of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo‘s emotional Wicked press tour.

“Being a theater kid is emotional,” Cravalho, the Moana star and Broadway actress, told Vanity Fair this week.

As Wicked‘s epic press tour came to a close last week, many online called attention to the emotional answers from the show’s two stars, Erivo and Grande, teasing the actresses for constant waterworks and dramatic proclamations about their experience making the film.

“I need people to understand what it’s like to be a theater kid,” Cravalho said. “Get off my girls Ariana and Cynthia’s backs. Do you understand me? You don’t know what it’s like to be working on a film for this long. The film is two hours and 40 minutes long. If you’re not crying after working with someone for that long, and you’re both theater kids and you’re singing live…I am very passionate about this.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the actress spoke about her experience returning to Disney’s Moana universe, noting it’s been 10 years since she began work on the first film. “I love this character so much,” she said. “Her impact continues to surprise me.

Both Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson reprised their roles as the Polynesian wayfinder and demigod Maui in Disney’s sequel. “If our last film was about connecting with the past, this film is about connecting with the future,” the native Hawaiian told The Hollywood Reporter at Moana 2‘s London premiere last weekend. “And we have a few characters in a few situations that further that. We have Simea, Moana’s younger sister, who is so effective at ripping our hearts into wanting one. To stay home with her or to answer that call from the ancestors?”

To Vanity Fair, Cravahlo also noted that she rerecorded the first film in Ōlelo Hawai’i, a native Hawaiian language that is dying.

“It was forbidden to be spoken for a few generations, and now [Moana] is being used as curriculum to help the resurgence of that language come back,” Cravalho said. “Moana is also one of the most widely translated Disney films, including Indigenous languages like Te Reo Māori, Samoan, Tahitian and Ōlelo Hawai’i. So she means a lot to me, but she also means a lot to a lot of other people.”