JoJo Says Filming 2006'sAquamarine'Brought Out Insecurities' About Her Body: ‘I Was Not as Skinny as the Other Girls’

Mar. 15, 2025

Left: Joanna “JoJo” Levesque in 2006’sAquamarine; Right: Joanna Levesque in 2024.Photo:20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection; Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection; Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Formerchild starJoanna “JoJo” Levesqueis looking back on her cult classic movieAquamarine, which she shot when she was 14, and revealing how the film “brought out some insecurities in me.”

On the Sept. 18 episode ofThe Viall Filespodcast, the singer, now 33, toldBacheloralumNick Vialland his co-host andwife,Natalie Joy, that the film “was my first big movie that I had done.”

She explained that in the 2006 fantasy film she “was playing the tomboy." She continued, “I was not as skinny as the other girls. I felt really like —” she used her elbows to mimic a larger body “—next to them.”

Joanna “JoJo” Levesque onThe Viall Files.Nick Viall/YouTube

Nick Viall/YouTube

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“I just remember feeling like that, and I was like, ‘Oh,’ " she said, shaking her head.

“So from a young age, I think, we’re all kind of aware, or we’re measuring ourselves up next to other girls — and I was no different,” she said.

However, it wasn’t all bad, as Levesque shared that she “learned a lot on that set,” which was “awesome” to film in Australia.

Although it wasn’t a box office hit, the film has become a touchstone for millennials and even younger generations.

“Natalie’s obsessed withAquamarine,” Viall, 43, said, promptingJoy, 25, to respond that “everyone’sobsessed withAquamarine.”

Levesque said the love for the film is “funny — it is! I hope that that word isn’t offensive,” she added, “I don’t mean it like that, but it’s just so funny because it’s, like, just such a silly movie.”

“It’s such a moment,” she continued. ”It’s like a little cult classic, low-key, for girls of our demographic.”

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“It’s nice that women my age who have daughters, it’s something that they’ll play for their daughters,” Levesque said.

“I’m so excited to show our daughter,” Joy responded, bringing up thecouple’s first child, 7-month-oldRiver Rose, prompting Levesque to say, “Aww!”

Joanna “JoJo” Levesque in NYC in September 2024.Santiago Felipe/Getty

Santiago Felipe/Getty

Levesque, whose memoirOver the Influencewas released on Tuesday, Sept. 17, has been looking back on her career in the spotlight — and how it shaped her adulthood.

“When you’re a child and you’re working, you start to see yourself and your body as something that’s a commodity,”she told PEOPLE, advocating for improved on-set education, mandatory downtime and therapists.

“I think that if a child is working and making money, there needs to be other things that are just for the joy of being a child.”

source: people.com