While Aquamarine was once the pinnacle of millennial girls’ childhoods, star Joanna “JoJo” Levesque secretly struggled behind the scenes.
“I was 14 when we went to Australia and filmed it. It was so cool. That was my first big movie that I had done,” JoJo, 33, recalled during the Wednesday, September 18, episode of “The Viall Files” podcast. “I [only did] independent movies before and I’ve been doing theater before. That was awesome, but it also brought out some insecurities in me.”
She continued, “I was, like, the tomboy, [and] I was playing the tomboy. I was not as skinny as the other girls. I felt [heavy] next to them. … I think that from a young age, we’re kind of aware or measuring ourselves up to the other girls — and I was no different.”
In 2006’s Aquamarine, JoJo and Emma Roberts played best friends Hailey and Claire, respectively, who make the discovery that mermaids really existed when sea creature Aquamarine (played by Sara Paxton) washed ashore at Claire’s family-run beach club. Aquamarine needs Hailey and Claire’s help to prove that true love exists in order to stay on land. The preteen besties offered to help in exchange for a wish.
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Looking back, JoJo sees the film as “such a silly movie.”
“It’s so funny, [and] I hope that word isn’t offensive,” she quipped on Wednesday’s episode. “It’s such a moment [and], like, a little cult classic, low-key, for girls of our generation. It’s nice that even women my age who have daughters play that for their daughters. It’s really cute.”
JoJo, meanwhile, “learned a lot” while on the set of Aquamarine, both about self-confidence and about acting in general.
“I would say I learned a lot [more] on the movie right after, which was RV [where] I played Robin Williams’ daughter. That was everything,” JoJo recalled. “He was such an example of what a movie star should be because he wasn’t just that. He was the most caring, thoughtful person in the room. He knew everybody’s name on the crew. He would know things about everyone’s life, and he would remember. He was truly a genius.”
Working with Williams, who died in 2014 at the age of 63, also introduced JoJo to one of her best friends in the late actor’s daughter, Zelda.
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“I had so much to learn from that set,” Levesque added, noting she filmed Aquamarine and RV “back-to-back” in between recording her early albums.
Of late, JoJo has been “getting more into acting.” She made her Broadway debut in Moulin Rouge! The Musical as Satine in April. Levesque recently returned to the Great White Way production, noting on Wednesday that the 8-shows-a-week schedule is “very humbling.” Levesque is also in the midst of workshopping an original musical.
