I committed to learning how to skateboard and I fell a lot and I also didn’t like that.
I also practiced running because I’m one of the co-captains on the track team. And I thought about those feelings of maybe inadequacy and always living in her shadow. I thought of myself as AJ, who has also a beautiful twin sister named Gabriela, who is seemingly perfect. Who did you draw on for inspiration for the character?Ĭravalho: I mostly just did a lot of homework. And I also thought that our script was so funny and the humor was so Gen Z and queer as well, but also our film doesn’t center on a coming out story, which I think is a little groundbreaking, to be honest, because it just shows these wonderful high school characters falling in love and they also just happen to be a little gay.ĪIPT: You mentioned you’re nothing like AJ. So it was really fun to play a character that’s so different from me. Whereas I’m very animated and if I have a crush on you, you’re going to know very soon. She’s someone who plays things close to her chest and is very cool with her emotions and tries not to reveal too much to her first crush. Auli’i Cravalho: I remember first reading the script for Crush and I was immediately taken with AJ because she’s a character that I’ve never played before.
