How can I activate audio component in a BP within sequencer?

I have an audio component within a character BP which when activated in game, is setting the audio envelope of that audio component to a var, then sent over to animBP for a simple lip syncing solution (higher the value, the more open the mouth is).

The problem is, i’m not sure how I can activate the audio within sequencer, and have the updated var occur when the audio envelopes change.

I’ve tried playing the audio from the construction script. I’ve tried setting the audio to auto-activate. I see when I simulate the game and stop playing/scrubbing the sequencer, the audio starts playing from the component, and I can see the lip syncing occurring. However, when I play/scrub through the sequence, it is not playing the audio component and there is no lip syncing.

Any ideas are appreciated!