‘We actually had a believable performance’: ‘The Little Mermaid’s VFX supervisor was awed while animating a ‘truly amazing’ character

Whether we consider the reviews praising The Little Mermaid to the moon and back or the ones airing their disappointment with its failures, one thing is consistent — Halle Bailey is, without doubt, the shining star of the film, keeping it afloat even when its problematic aspects try to bog it down. Well, we now know about her saving the plot with her expressive acting prowess. What we don’t know is that Bailey is a dream come true for every VFX artist who has to work double hard to add digital effects to films. 

In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, The Little Mermaid’s visual effects supervisor Tim Burke gave a peek behind the scenes at the complex process, which includes actors being suspended in rigs for hours, involved in adding the needed visuals to make it look like they are actually underwater. But the difficult procedure became “so much easier” for Burke and his team when it came to applying the effects to the “truly amazing” Bailey as she was “giving a performance and a believability.”

“It really was her performance that sold the fact that she was a mermaid. Replacing her body, putting her tail on, obviously, creating the animation that went with her physical movement, was so much easier when we actually had a believable performance in the first place from her. She did an incredible amount of intense physical training to be fit for working on this because she was spending – I don’t know how many hours a day, but several hours a day – almost supporting herself through her stomach muscles in different positions [in the rigs].”

The majority of the reviews for the film have praised Halle Bailey for giving The Little Mermaid the magic it needed to be a hit as it heads to be the winner with a $120 million box office earning prediction in the four-day holiday. Cast members have also confessed of the actress left them “completely overwhelmed.” And judging by how the Academy Award-winning Burke gushed about Bailey, evidently, there is hardly anyone who is not impressed by Hollywood rising young star.