By Michaela Gordoni
LILO & STITCH actress, 8-year-old Maia Kealoha, is sharing all of her favorite moments from the new live-action movie.
“I heard you auditioned 15 times before you got it. So, when you did get it, who did you call? Who was the first person you called to say, ‘I got it?’” Michael Strahan asked Kealoha on GOOD MORNING AMERICA Wednesday.
“It was my dad’s mom and dad,” she said, “because they were super close to our house, I just had to tell them. But I pranked them that I act like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get it but and then I act like I did get it. ‘I got it!’”
Strahan then asked how many times she watched the animated movie. Kealoha gave an appropriate 8-year-old response.
“Five thousand point five million point five million five,” she said, earning a laugh from the audience.
She said the first scene she filmed for the movie was one of the hardest because it was filmed all in one take, and Stitch sprays her with a soda bottle. She had to redo the scene several times and dry off and then put on new clothes again.
“And you didn’t want to do that more? Strahan asked her.
“No, I didn’t,” she said.
Since she filmed the movie, she became a big sister.
“It’s like I’m I was taking care of Stitch and now I’m taking care of another Stitch,” she joked.
One of her favorite moments from the movie is when Stitch crashes on earth and speaks like an alien.
Related: Live-Action LILO & STITCH Star ‘Can’t Wait’ for Movie to Come Out
After an impressive Stitch impression, Strahan said, “Let me tell you, Maya, you’re amazing.”
“Thank you!” she said.
Kealoha shared a special connection with her big sis in the movie, Sydney Agudong, who plays Nani.
“I think we both felt a very special bond,” Agudong told GOOD MORNING AMERICA. “We just loved each other.”
“There’s nothing that we don’t like about each other,” Kealoha said. “As soon as we met, we felt like, ‘Oh my gosh, is she my long lost sister?”
While filming, Agudong felt a sense of kuleana, which means a responsibility to care for land and community.
“Throughout the making of this film, it allowed me to kind of really take into account how much of the Hawaiian community puts an emphasis on kuleana and family and ohana in that sort of way,” she said.
LILO & STITCH just came out on May 23 and is currently playing in theaters. Disney hasn’t announced when it will launch the live-action remake on Disney+, but AllEars estimates it will follow previous release patterns and will likely hit the platform in 3.5 months.
Read Next: LILO & STITCH (2025)
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