Next year, Disney will bring The Little Mermaid to live-action formats as part of their cartoons-to-remake cash cow pipeline. It stars singer and actress Halle Bailey as the titular character, and, now, she is revealing how she approached doing her version.
Bailey speaks about her role in an article published by Comicbook.com earlier today. Essentially, the 22-year-old worked at impressing herself, and, by ultimately doing this Bailey says she will make young girls happy and possibly other people, too.
“Well, this movie means so much to me, since I was a little girl. I think, approaching this role, I said to myself, ‘I can only try my hardest and make myself proud. If I make the little girl inside me happy, then I know I did a good job and I know I’m doing my best.’ I just gave it my all, and I hope people can take something away from it.”
Later in the piece a quote from a previous chat with director Rob Marshall says the key with making the film was making sure the songs in it feel earned and they have to be organic fits for the story. You cannot just wedge them in, and Ariel only has one song in the entire production. Though Bailey has received ridiculous backlash from people on the internet over the color of her skin for a fictional character and species not present in our world, she does have the support of original Ariel actress Jodi Benson. Benson says in a new Entertainment Weekly piece Bailey does an amazing job and is proud of her performance in the stunning film.
The Little Mermaid opens May 26, 2023. It also features Javier Bardem as King Triton, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian the crab and servant of the king, and, fittingly, Awkwafina is in the piece, though not as a fish and instead does voice work for Scuttle, the dimwitted diving bird Ariel knows.