Nicole Scherzinger Tells Us Why She HAD To Play The Role Of Moana’s Mother #MoanaEvent

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I was very excited to interview Nicole Scherzinger who plays Sina (Moana’s mother) in the film Moana.  She was very humble and truly felt she was as happy to see us and we were to see her. As she walked into the room, you felt her warm heart!

Once we started asking questions about her role in Moana, we first asked,Tell us why you wanted to be a part of this project and how it came to be? Her answer at first surprised me, but I quickly felt the passion behind her answer. 

Well, I didn’t want to be a part of the project. I felt I had to be a part of the project, and that’s because I’m from Hawaiian descent and I knew that the movie was gonna be about the Polynesian people and I’m just so proud that Disney did right by the Polynesian people and stayed true to our culture, where we come from, our mono, our power, our people, our lifeline and just told a beautiful story about a young girl

 

When being shared her lines, They were trying to give me a backstory.   And I was like, please, I lived this, I lived with my mother and my tutu, which means grandmother in Hawaiian. In our culture, the men are the head of the household, but the women are the backbone. They are everything. They are the strength. They keep it together. And in my family, my tutu had twenty-one births and eighteen children that survived.  So my tutu already has like seventy-five grandchildren and great grandchildren combined. We have a really, really big family at home. So I just felt like I had to be a part of this.

We asked her, You have such a huge family.  Is everybody still in Hawaii?

Most of them are on the Island.  You know when people come from an island, they usually stay on the Island.  A lot of them haven’t even been outside of the Island.  So, yeah, so I’m pretty much related to all of Oahu.  My mom, had me at a very young age.

She was pregnant with me when she was seventeen and, had me when she was eighteen. She raised me on her own and then my tutu and papa – that’s from grandmother and grandfather – they helped raise me as well.  Then my mother met my father, which is why I got the last name Scherzinger.  My adopted last name. She had to move to the- the states for my Tutu and Papa – my Papa was in the Marines – to help raise me.  I said as soon as I grew up and was able to afford it, I would move my mom back home. So, as soon as I was making some dollars… I moved my mom back home, so my Mom and Dad are in Hawaii

I found this to be the most interesting question. Do you feel like you are where you should be?  Did you ever think that you would be where you are now when you first started out?

The honest answer to that is no.  When I was a little girl I came from nothing, but for some reason I felt like I was meant to be Whitney Houston.  Like I wanted to be – not meant to because no one can replicate her ever, or touch her.  But, I knew I was meant to sing and to be a voice. It’s interesting, my life has taken different paths.  I don’t regret anything, and I’m very grateful for everything.  But last year,  it was this exact time last year I finished my year and I was reflecting, I was like, how do I feel about this year?  It’s the first year I ever really put music out.  What am I doing?  Am I gonna make a new album?  How can I compete with all these twenty year olds?  What am I doing? I really thought about it and I was like, I’m really tired of people telling me, you know, you kinda like, sing everything and that’s very confusing, and you do everything, that’s really confusing for people. So I’m like, why can’t I do my own thing? I decided last year that I was gonna create my own show, and do my own album  that comes out of it.  

I feel as though I can really relate to her last quote. Although, I am on a very different level than her, we all have so much more potential than we give ourselves credit for…. go reach for the stars!

“People have said,WOW you’ve done so much, what is there left to do?  And I’m like, that’s funny, ‘cause I feel like I’m just scratching at the surface and I’m just using a fraction of my potential. So I’ve got everything left to do. “

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Disclosure : I was invited onto this all expense paid press trip to share with you my Moana experience. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.