Critics and audiences alike agree that Melissa McCarthy’s Ursula — aside from the sensational Halle Bailey, of course — is the best part of The Little Mermaid besides Lin-Manuel Miranda’s stunning soundtrack. She truly embodies the character, channeling her inner Pat Carroll whilst also making Ursula her own. Sadly, Carroll passed away last year, so she couldn’t see the final product and the fruits of her labor, as they say. As for McCarthy, she undergoes an incredible physical transformation to embody Ursula, including heavy drag-inspired makeup and a wild white wig, reminiscent of Ursula’s iconic look from the 1989 original.
It doesn’t seem as if McCarthy was in the makeup chair for too long to become Ursula; nothing nearly as torturous as Jim Carrey’s Grinch and the like. In fact, it’s been revealed that a lot of the movie magic for Ursula’s appearance came from the stunning mood lighting, which gives the Sea Witch her violet hue. McCarthy had nothing more than a costume, a wig, and some fairly basic makeup; the rest of the ambience came from distinct purple lighting and a lot of CGI.
On YouTube and other platforms, a short clip of McCarthy’s transformation has surfaced, showing the entire process from start to finish. Again, it doesn’t seem to take that long, but when the majority of the effects are provided artificially, there only needs to be a rough outline to build the foundations of the character. If you’re interested, check out the video for yourself below.
For the majority of the movie, Ursula dwells in her cave, far away from the rest of Atlantica. Said cave is bathed in atmospheric mood lighting, that of which paints McCarthy’s skin to appear purple-ish, similar to OG Ursula. Of course, her tentacles are purely CGI too, so there’s a lot of effort that went into the setting, as well as McCarthy’s final look.
In the video above, Ursula’s eyebrows are misshapen and uneven, as is the eye shadow. We can’t really attest to whether or not that was intentional, and for the life of me, I can’t remember if I spotted asymmetrical brows in the final product, but thankfully, the mood lighting saved that god-awful makeup. On a lighter note, doesn’t McCarthy look stunning? Oh, and a spoiler-free review from yours truly, she absolutely kills it as Ursula, so go see it.
The Little Mermaid is showing in theaters now.