Auli'i Cravalho on Coming Out as Bisexual, One Year Later
The past 12 months have felt like a whirlwind. It’s already been a year since Auli’i Cravalho posted the TikTok that broke the internet, in which she came out as bisexual by lip-synching to an Eminem song. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Auli’i reflected on the video — which was also her first TikTok ever — and expressed pleasant surprise at the public’s reaction.
“The funniest part to me was that I had girlfriends in high school. I think girls are great, but I wouldn't think that it was necessary to come out,” she said. To Auli’i, the video was less of a formal coming out announcement and more so a spontaneous 3 a.m. post. Nonetheless, the Moana star’s news about her sexuality was welcomed by fans with open arms. “The fans are only too happy to accept another gay,” Auli’i joked.
The 20-year-old actress and singer, who is currently filming her new thriller series The Power, opened up about how her TikTok even prompted people from her past to reach out with positive messages. “Like, 'Wow, that's really great,’” she quoted them. “‘I wouldn't have the confidence to come out like you did in a TikTok, but hey, way to be real Gen-Z about it and push forward into the future.’”
And pushing forward into the future is exactly what she’s hoping to do, especially in Hollywood. Auli’i admits that she’s still learning when it comes to other identities in the LGBTQ+ community — "I still sometimes slip up even with my friends, of integrating 'they/them' into sentences, because I'm so used to this binary of 'he or she’” — but she’s certain that the next generation of entertainment, her generation, is going to normalize inclusivity in unprecedented ways. “I'm glad that these terms [pronouns] are being used in film, because that's just going to help me and help others use it in their daily lives,” she said.
Auli’i shared that throughout her career, she’s experienced ethnic pigeonholing when it comes to what types of roles she’s tapped to take on. “I know that it will change and it is changing,” she said. “And we're learning to love our features and our voices in their diversity, but it's also for me, at least as a young woman, I also am trying to not make waves still. I'm still trying to hold myself as what I think is appropriate. And I'm like, 'Oh boy, if we all just relaxed into it, I wonder how I would act differently. What roles I would get if I relaxed into my fullest state, which I'm not sure what it is yet.'"
Which is okay — Auli’i has time to explore her identity to its fullest potential and understand who she can become. Hollywood will catch up, and possibly sooner than later. Auli’i revealed that she’s started to receive roles that are written as gay or bisexual, roles that encapsulate more aspects of her identity rather than just boxing her in. Auli’i sees it as “encouraging.”
“If you're playing someone who is part of the LGBTQ spectrum, that isn't just the story line,” she said. “There's so much more to them. We are straight-A students. We are avid readers. We have these wild imaginations. We don't know what the heck we're doing, but also don't just show us in the light of 'My sexuality is this burden,' because it's not. It is so joyful.”
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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
