Friendships don’t necessarily end with an argument or betrayal. Sometimes life simply starts pulling two people in different directions, and the fear of what might be lost along the way can prove just as painful.
That anxiety sits at the emotional centre of DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island, a vibrant fantasy adventure that sends lifelong best friends Jo (H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano) to the magical island of Nakali just as their lives are threatening to separate them. Raissa is preparing to leave home and pursue her ambitions at Caltech, while Jo is confronting the possibility that the person who has defined so much of her life may no longer be there in the same way. Their fantastical predicament ultimately gives that fear devastatingly literal stakes: escaping the island could cost them the memories of their friendship entirely.
But for Soberano, who grew up in the Philippines, the film’s emotional resonance extends beyond the idea of lifelong friendship. It’s in what she describes as the “Filipino heart”: the cultural instinct to care deeply for your community and consider the people you love when making decisions about your own future. It’s a quality woven throughout Forgotten Island, which embraces Filipino mythology and culture whilst exploring the difficult truth that loving someone doesn’t mean your lives always have to move in the same direction.
That connection proved just as organic between its two leads. In a rarity for animated filmmaking, Soberano and H.E.R. were able to record together, allowing their own personalities to bleed into Jo and Raissa. From encouraging each other through the film’s playful moments to finding the emotional weight behind its Polaroids, friendship bracelets and distinctly ’90s absence of FaceTime, their chemistry became another reflection of a film about learning that distance doesn’t have to mean losing someone.
Speaking with our Peter Gray, Liza Soberano and H.E.R. discussed bringing that Filipino heart to Forgotten Island, recognising their own best friendships in Jo and Raissa, the freedom of performing together in the recording booth, and why pursuing your own dreams doesn’t have to mean sacrificing the relationships that helped shape you.
The film is obviously about chemistry and friendship, and this story very much lives or dies on whether we believe Jo and Raissa’s bond. What did you each recognise in your own lives that helped you understand that kind of lifelong friendship?
Liza Soberano: I think, more than the lifelong friendship, it’s about recognising that Filipino heart for the people you care about. That’s what I personally resonated with most. Growing up in the Philippines, there’s so much importance and intentionality placed on taking care of the people around you, whether they’re family, friends or extended family. You’re always considering how the decisions you make in your own life might affect them. So it was about bringing that nuance of our culture into the film.
But I also have a best friend, and I understand the difficulties and the journey you go through together. There’s something magical about continually rediscovering each other through the different phases of your lives.
H.E.R.: Yeah, definitely. It was really special to see, like you said, the importance of community in Filipino culture and what it means to have a friend worth fighting for. There’s that fear of being left behind, of being afraid of change – there are so many themes in this film that I think people are going to resonate with.
It really resonated with me personally, too. I have a best friend back home, and we’ve spent a lot of time apart, but every time we get back together, it feels like no time has passed. Those are the kinds of friendships worth fighting for, and you really feel that in Jo and Raissa’s relationship.
On the mention of having best friends, did the two of you build a shorthand or a language while recording? I know that you actually got to record in the booth together, which doesn’t always happen. Did you come up with a way to just know what the other was thinking? A way to bounce off each other?
Liza Soberano: It was actually really interesting. We were watching each other and reacting in the way you would on a live-action set. I’d seen a lot of H.E.R.’s work, so I already had this perception of who she was as a person. But then I got to meet her in real life, and we had a few moments to talk before going into the recording booth.
Getting a sense of her personality and then seeing her perform live gave me something to respond to. I was basically just bouncing off whatever she was giving me in the moment.
H.E.R.: Yeah, and we’re so much like our characters in real life that it organically became this back-and-forth where it almost felt like we weren’t acting. It was very natural and really fun.
There are moments where we’re dancing in the film and I’m going, “Come on, Raissa, you got it!” She’s actually a little shy in real life, so I’d be jumping up and down, encouraging her. We’re so much like our characters in that way. We were helping each other feel comfortable in different scenes and constantly bouncing off each other. It was really funny, actually.
I wanted to ask about memory and emotion. There’s something really heartbreaking about being forgotten, but also something complicated about choosing to forget. Did that duality change how you approached your performances?
Liza Soberano: Yes, I would say that, without revealing too much, there isn’t really a point where they’re choosing to forget each other. It’s more that they realise their memories are what they have to give up in order to get off the island.
For Raissa especially, she needs to leave the country to pursue her dream of going to Caltech, which means leaving her friend behind. In a way, what happens on the island becomes a metaphor for what she might have to go through in real life, and this idea of choosing between holding onto those memories and pursuing her ambitions.
But she also realises that you don’t have to choose one or the other. You can chase your goals and want things for yourself without having to sacrifice a relationship you’ve worked so hard to build over so many years.
I don’t think that necessarily changed my performance, but it definitely added more layers to it, especially in the more emotional sequences.
H.E.R.: Yeah, the stakes were a lot higher too, especially because it’s set in the ’90s. They couldn’t just FaceTime or Zoom, so Jo genuinely feels like she could lose her best friend for good. She doesn’t know what this change is going to mean for their friendship, and those memories are almost all they have.
When you think about that time, there are the Polaroids, the bracelet – all these little sentimental objects that represent the memories they’ve created together. Having that in mind added depth even to the funny or playful moments, because they all mattered. I think that’s what makes the movie so special: just how sentimental it is.
And I will say, the “Who Let the Dogs Out” moment was such a great reminder that, yes, that song had an absolute chokehold on the world at one point. It was really fun to be transported back to that time.
I just want to say how much I’m looking forward to the film. As someone who grew up watching movies, and especially animated movies, this feels like it’s going to take me back to that period when we didn’t have all this technology – we went outside, enjoyed life, nature and music, and experienced things together.
I really hope audiences turn out to see it, especially with the way it embraces Filipino culture and brings that to such a big animated adventure. Thank you both so much for taking the time, and congratulations on the film.
Liza Soberano: Thank you so much.
H.E.R.: Thank you so much.
Forgotten Island is screening in Australian theatres from September 17th, 2026.
