One of this weekend’s latest offerings from Netflix is a sweet coming-of-age drama from All The Bright Places’ director Brett Haley, All Together Now. The new release stars Moana’s Auli’i Cravalho as Amber, a talented high school senior on her way to audition for Carnegie Mellon despite the personal challenges she is facing. The song chosen for her audition holds a special place in Amber’s heart that carries her through the film.
While speaking to the All Together Now cast, also including Runaways’ Rhenzy Feliz, One Day At A Time’s Justina Machado and Scrubs’ Judy Reyes, I asked them if there was a song that has helped them get through their own auditions. Check out the moment from our interview below:
These are some great picks. 22-year-old Rhenzy Feliz jumped in first by giving a shout-out to the Hamilton soundtrack for being his method to get out of his head on the way to his auditions. Feliz said he was particularly nervous to try for his role as Ty in the Sorta Like A Rockstar adaptation. In the film, the character is Amber’s closest friend.
In our interview, Feliz also told me that once he did get the role, which places him in his first leading man role in his first ever movie, it was especially important for him and Auli’i Cravalho to become comfortable with one another before starring in their many emotional scenes together.
Interesting enough, Auli’i Cravalho doesn’t like to listen to music before her auditions. It makes sense since she is a singer herself and may be extra sensitive to the lyrics and orchestration of a song, rather than it serving as welcome background noise or a confidence boost. When it comes to musically-charged auditions, she did say The Animals’ "The House of the Rising Sun" is her go-to. All Together Now is her first live-action film as, up until this point, she'd served as the voice of Disney princess Moana in a few theatrical projects.
Justina Machado has been working as an actor in Hollywood since the ‘90s, so she admitted that her audition song has changed quite a bit. One that she thought of right away was Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful, an empowering early ‘00s track, which Judy Reyes seemed to co-sign. Reyes said her audition picks range depending on what she’s auditioning for, but she sang a lovely sample of a Donny Hathaway song she popped on before.
The central audition song in All Together Now is called “Feels Like Home,” which is a highlight of the film, as Amber and her mother (Machado) find themselves at odds while taking shelter on the school bus she drives during the day. You can also check out part of my interview with the film’s director Brett Haley, who exclusively confirmed that the Grease prequel he's developing will be a “full on” musical. All Together Now is streaming on Netflix now.
