“There was no plan to cast a woman of color,” says the director of Disney’s new live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, in which rising pop star and actor Halle Bailey plays the seagoing heroine Ariel.
“We considered everyone for that part. I mean, everyone, of every race,” Marshall says next. “Really, it was just, ‘Let’s find the best Ariel. And it was a hard role to play because she had to have an amazing voice, be strong and enthusiastic, but also be vulnerable, kind of naive, and maybe even from another planet.
“Halle then walked in and sang “Part of Your World.” And I remember so clearly that when the song ended, I was just crying. It made me sad. We kept bringing her back because she is so moving and attached.
Bailey is black, so when she was cast, racist reactions and claims that Disney was getting “woke” by reimagining its, um, mythical mermaid creature in a movie that takes place in a made-up fantasyland with a non-white actor were expected.
But even though the debate got more attention, there was also a lot of cheering. Videos of young Black girls laughing and smiling while watching the clip for the movie went viral.
“Those moments mean everything to me,” Bailey, who is 23 years old, tells us. “Seeing how the babies react and hear them say, ‘Wow, she looks like me,’ is so special, powerful, and healing for the inner child in me, to be honest. I think it’s so important for us to be able to see ourselves on TV. And it does so much for your self-worth, especially when you’re a baby and you see someone who looks like you as a princess. So those times mean everything to me, and I’ll never get tired of them.”
Bailey was also deeply affected by the first time she saw herself on the big screen as Ariel. “I was just crying and watching myself cry for the first 20 minutes,” she says.
When the finished movie was finally shown to reviewers early, it was Bailey’s powerful acting and singing that got the most praise. Her fellow actors weren’t shocked.
“She was amazing,” says Jonah Hauer-King, who plays Ariel’s boyfriend Eric. Bailey called him on FaceTime when she had just seen the movie for the first time and was crying.
“She has it all,” says Ariel’s father, King Triton, played by Javier Bardem. “She has everything you could want in an actor and a singer. But she’s also a beautiful person, and she has an air that you either have or you don’t. She had it from birth. So you can’t take your eyes off her when you watch it on screen.”
Jacob Tremblay, who voices Flounder, says that he first heard her sing “Part of Your World” during a rehearsal. “It was just a practice, and she wasn’t even trying very hard, but she still put on a beautiful show. Everyone got shivers when she spoke. It was totally awesome. My mom, who grew up with the original, was sobbing.
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Daveed Diggs, who plays fan favorite Sebastian, says, “She really carried the whole thing on her back.” “That young woman is under a lot of pressure once it was made public and everything started coming at her. But I can’t think of anyone else who could handle it as well as she does. She is really, really special.”
The actors all agree that the movie’s hiring should be praised, not criticized because it doesn’t care about race. “You can’t let people who are afraid of anything they don’t see in the mirror tell us what to do, how to love, and who to admire and look up to,” says Melissa McCarthy, who plays the evil sea witch Ursula who irritates Ariel. “I love what our movie stands for.
