Auli’i Cravalho is one of the biggest rising stars on NBC’s Rise. The 17-year-old actress, whose breakout role as Disney princess Moana earned her a performance gig at the Oscars last year, recently landed her first-ever TV role on Rise, Jason Katims’ NBC drama about a high school theater program. On the show, Auli’i’s acting and singing talents are put to good use in her role as high school student/diner waitress Lilette Suarez.
Cravalho’s character is a Stanton high sophomore who auditions for a controversial school musical and gets cast in the lead role, much to the dismay of the program’s usual lead lady, Gwen Strickland (played by Amy Forsyth). In addition, Lilette juggles school, her waitressing job, and her romantic feelings for her co-star, Robbie Thorne.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight , Auli’i Cravalho revealed that she can relate to her Rise character because they are both singers and “searching for their footing in the world.”
“She knows that the only way she can get out of a small town and get rid of the small-town mindset is to work hard,” Cravalho told ET of her Rise character. “She’s working to rise above her situation and her circumstances however she can. It’s really a year of growth for Lilette within the first season. It’s exciting to see her come of age in so many different ways.”
Auli’i Cravalho admitted that her character’s relationship with her mother Vanessa (Shirley Rumierk) is very different than her bond with her own mom, but that she felt it was “so real” when she first read the script for the pilot episode. As for the possibility of Lilette’s absentee dad making an appearance on Rise , it doesn’t sound like it will happen in the 10-episode first season. Cravalho said she is grateful for the show’s mindset that it’s mom and daughter against the world and that, when it comes to a father figure for Lilette, “You never know what you’re missing when you don’t have it.”
Lilette’s crush on high school football quarterback Robbie Thorne (Damon J. Gillespie) is also a major storyline on Rise . Auli’i explained as follows.
“Everyone gravitates toward him, so I’m sure that’s what grabs Lilette’s eye. But as we delve deeper into each of the characters, you learn that nothing is really as it looks on the surface. Nothing is peachy keen or perfect.”
Both teens are new to the school’s theater program and are cast in unlikely lead roles under the watchful eye of new drama director Lou Mazzuchelli (Josh Radnor). Cravalho explains that “Lilette really finds strength in having someone like Robbie to start a friendship and a relationship with.”
In an interview with Teen Vogue , Auli’i Cravalho teased what Rise fans can expect from Lilette going forward this season.
“We get to see her a little bit more out of her shell, we get to see her relationship with Simon (Ted Sutherland), her best friend, who is going through his own circles of sexuality…We also see even more of the relationship between Lilette and her mother and how, with all the mistakes that each of them make…we see how that affects her at school and her performance in Spring Awakening .”
Of course, Rise fans are all about the relationship between Lilette and the high school jock who’s showing his softer side as he embarks on his first foray into the school theater program.
“We see the relationship between her and Robbie and that first love that some of us can relate to,” Cravalho told Teen Vogue . “We get to see her, perhaps not find someone who completes her because I think she’s a strong independent woman, but we do get to see someone who compliments her and who gives her a type of strength she wasn’t expecting from a young man. Because she’s in high school, all of that is amplified with just teenage emotion. Be prepared for that as well.”
You can see Auli’i Cravalho and Damon J. Gillespie in a memorable moment from Rise below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1a1TOxFzrc
Rise airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.
