Moana director explains why they changed her hair from the original following backlash

15 July 2026, 12:56

By Sam Prance

Disney's live-action Moana has been criticised for putting Catherine Laga’aia in a wig when she has naturally curly hair.

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Moana director Thomas Kail has addressed fans criticising the new film for changing Moana's hair from the original.

Ever since the first teaser images for Disney's live-action Moana were revealed, the film's faced some backlash over Moana's hair. In the original animation, Moana has curly hair throughout the movie and live-action Moana actress Catherine Laga’aia also has naturally curly hair. However, in the live-action film, Catherine's hair is different.

Now, Thomas Kail has explained why they made Catherine wear a wavy wig in the film instead of her natural hair.

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Watch the first live-action Moana trailer

Discussing the hair discourse with Rolling Stone, director Thomas Kail revealed that Catherine had to film scenes with wet hair and dry hair in the same day. As a result, it would have been hard to re-style her natural hair for each scene without damaging her hair. Using a wig, allowed Catherine to protect her natural hair.

In the interview, Thomas said: "We shot for 80 or 90 days and it’s [43°C]. What this would do with the wear and tear and [going] in and out of tanks and out water. Sometimes we’re doing three different scenes in a day that are from completely different parts of the film."

He continued: "A lot of it’s about maintenance, and in the body of the film… Moana has 30 different looks for hair.
When she gets knocked around the ocean in the storm, it’s gonna look quite different than when she’s being presented in front of the village."

Moana's hair in the original film. Picture: Alamy

Meanwhile, Catherine said that she appreciated wearing a wig in the film: "The first time I put it on, I was like, this is so cool. I get to have hair down to my waist. It’s kind of a new look for me. Once I was in this wig, once I’m in this costume, then I really am Moana."

She ended by saying: "I think it helped me kind of channel her and see myself a little bit differently through her. So maybe there were things that, you know, Catherine couldn’t do, but Moana could do."