PerhapsHalle Baileywas always destined to be a Disney princess.
The studio’s groundbreaking new Ariel has the “voice of an angel,” according to directorRob Marshall.
“She just floats through the world with tremendous grace and kindness,” adds her costarMelissa McCarthy.
Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric in ‘The Little Mermaid’.
“I was really trying not to get so emotionally overwhelmed by it.”
“They move forward when the right mix of ingredients comes together.”
“Even as he grew older, he never felt he fit in.”
Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric in ‘The Little Mermaid’.
In Ariel-speak, the producer says, “He was never going to be part of the world.”
“You see a bit more of her curiosity.”
Can you feel the love tonight?
Halle Bailey’s Ariel and Jonah Hauer-King’s Eric in ‘The Little Mermaid’.
It was the culmination of a process that began with hundreds of hopefuls eyeing the male lead includingHarry Styles.
Hauer-King remembers Bailey’s warmth, but three other guys were also vying for the Eric part.
“I didn’t take her being kind to me as any indication,” the 27-year-old recalls.
‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ star Noma Dumezweni makes her ‘Little Mermaid’ debut as Prince Eric’s mom Queen Selina.
“I just assumed she was a lovely person and would’ve done that for anyone.”
Minutes after returning to his trailer from the audition, he heard a knock at his door.
It was Bailey coming to wish him luck and share her hopes of seeing him again.
Melissa McCarthy as Ursula in ‘The Little Mermaid’.Disney
Did she knock on everyone’s door?'"
Bailey, as it turned out, did not.
“We became very, very close friends and still are,” he now says.
‘The Little Mermaid’ director Rob Marshall on location.Giles Keyte/Disney
“It’s a lovely balance,” Dumezweni remarks.
“It’s the sense of these babies being two outsiders of their origin story.”
“Eric is endlessly drawn to the sea and Ariel’s endlessly drawn to land,” Miranda continues.
Ariel (Halle Bailey) rescues Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) from a shipwreck in ‘The Little Mermaid’.
“So where does that get us?”
And, of course, there’s one other crucial element: a certain unfortunate soul.
In assuming the role, McCarthy says she “100 percent” used drag as an influence.
Javier Bardem focused on the father-daughter relationship with King Triton and Ariel in ‘The Little Mermaid’.
“There’s a drag queen that lives in me.
DeLuca calls Ursula the “black sheep” of the family, noting the pain that comes with it.
“She’s the villain, but there’s such an edge to her,” McCarthy adds.
Halle Bailey’s Ariel carries Jonah Hauer-King’s Eric to shore in ‘The Little Mermaid’.
“She’s been put in this lair.
It’s like she’s had too many martinis alone.
Her friends are eels.
Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric and Halle Bailey as Ariel in ‘The Little Mermaid’.Giles Keyte/Disney
That is a woman who has seen it, been in it, dug her way back out.
“But no one’s ready for Melissa McCarthy.”
Broadway’s first Sebastian) with an orchestra in London for the cast recording.
“If that’s your favorite song, you’re going to be happy.”
“It was quite daunting to think, ‘How are we gonna create an underwater musical?'”
(DeLuca says it was more like “150 percent daunting.")
“We know the Esther Williams underwater musicals where they’re holding their breath.
This is a whole different thing,” Marshall continues.
“The whole idea of how we’re gonna do this was so complicated.”
“It’s almost like we created a movie before we filmed the movie,” Marshall remarks.
(Disney used this on Angelina Jolie for flying sequences inMaleficent: Mistress of Evil.)
Other times she was on wires or a combination of both.
But it was worth it.
“I loved being able to feel like I could fly.”
“It was like [being] at Disney Parks in the rides,” Bardem exclaims.
“You have to be in shape because those arms have to be there.
And most importantly, you have to have a strong core.
You really have to do some gymnastics.”
“I’m not Dwayne Johnson.
The physical demands were also an adjustment for McCarthy.
“Rob wanted me to experience the tentacles and the space I really took up,” she says.
“So I had eight dancers around me, each one puppeteering a 10- or 12-foot tentacle.
I would swoop to the left and all of these dancers would come with me.
Bailey did get to shoot in actual water, however.
The water is where Bailey found her confidence to be the lead of a large-scale Hollywood movie.
“I just felt like I was getting purified, you know?”
She adds, “The good outweighs all the bad.”
