Grace VanderWaal has come a long way from her ukelele-strumming days on America’s Got Talent. Disney+ released several new photos on April 26 that feature the 18-year-old actress returning as Susan “Stargirl” Caraway in the upcoming Hollywood Stargirl, a sequel to 2020’s Stargirl. According to the official synopsis, the movie follows Stargirl’s journey out of Mica, Arizona, “into a bigger world ofmusic, dreams, and possibility.”
“When her mother Ana (Judy Greer) is hired as the costume designer on a movie, they relocate to L.A., where Stargirl quickly becomes involved with an eclectic assortment of characters,” continues the synopsis via People. “They include aspiring filmmaking brothers Evan (Elijah Richardson) and Terrell (Tyrel Jackson Williams); Mr. Mitchell (Judd Hirsch), one of Stargirl’s neighbors; and Roxanne Martel (Uma Thurman), a musician Stargirl admires and encounters on her journey.” VanderWaal will also perform an original song she wrote for the movie “Figure It Out.”
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In 2018, VanderWaal beat out 700 other girls for the role of Stargirl, which was her first acting role. The titular film is an inspirational teen romance based on Jerry Spinelli’s Y.A. novel. The film features Stargirl, a passionate and confident student with a penchant for playing the ukulele who moves to a new town and touches the lives of the people there.
Vanderwaal told LADYGUNN in 2021 that though she related to Stargirl in some ways, her high school experiences made playing the role a challenge. “It was really, really hard filming the first movie because I was a lot like Stargirl but not really,” she said. “I didn’t really fit in. I was just super insecure. I literally hated every single day of school. And so actually for the first film, we had to go to a school and there were a bunch of extras, and it was extremely hard to try to act like Stargirl, like actually extroverted. Being in that setting felt so…oh my god just bad.” In a 2020 POPSUGAR interview, the singer also said that it was difficult “being confident on-screen.”
“That’s not exactly who I am, that’s who I wish I was and who I’m working to be. It was really nerve-racking because I can’t really do that even in my personal life,” Vanderwaal told the outlet. “So playing a character that’s supposed to be completely confident and 100 percent not afraid was definitely my biggest challenge because I really wanted to bring that to the screen. It was really hard for me, because that’s not exactly who I am, that’s who I wish I was and who I’m working to be, but not who I was at the time.”
Despite that, her role inspired her in other ways. “She definitely inspired me to just be a little more comfortable with myself and accept that you’re never going to make everyone happy. I think it was pretty amazing that they put that into the film, that she definitely didn’t make everyone happy.” At age 12, VanderWaal won the eleventh season of the NBC show America’s Got Talent performing her original songs. She was the second female and second child to win the show’s history.
