How Halle Bailey became The Little Mermaid’s Ariel
MANILA, Philippines — Halle Bailey was recently introduced to the international press as the Disney princess, Ariel, in the live-action reimagining of the Oscar-winning animated musical The Little Mermaid.
The film is directed by Rob Marshall (Memoirs of a Geisha, Chicago) with a screenplay by David Magee and songs featuring music from Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman, plus new lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
At a recent virtual presscon The STAR participated in, the American singer-actress shared how much she felt connected with her iconic mermaid character Ariel, a spirited and strong-willed 18-year-old from under the sea, whose beautiful voice and a thirst for adventure bring her danger, excitement and love in the world above the surface.
“Absolutely (I feel a kinship with her). I mean, I tell people all the time I feel like Ariel truly has helped me find myself and like this young woman version of me because, well, it’s been five years of my life now — from 18 to now being 23,” she said during the The Little Mermaid’s Talent Press Conference ahead of the film’s premiere on May 24 in cinemas nationwide.
“So those are very intense-like transformative years as you’re developing as a young woman. But I feel like, especially these themes of the film, and what she had to go through with her passions and drive, and speaking up for herself, and even though it may be scary, she went for it.
“I feel like those things I really try to adopt and give to Halle now. So, she’s taught me so much, for sure.”
Besides Halle, the big-screen musical features an all-star cast, including Jonah Haeur-King as Eric, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, Awkwafina as Scuttle, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, Noma Dumezweni as The Queen, Art Malik as Sir Grimsby, with Javier Bardem as King Triton and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula.
According to the production notes, Halle used to watch the animated classic on repeat growing up, but “never in a million years” did she think she would one day become Ariel on screen.
What was her first reaction when she found out she sealed the lead part? “Oh my gosh, my first reaction was just sobbing, honestly,” admitted Halle during the presscon.
“I was just crying. I think we had celebrated my sister’s birthday the day before. So, we were, like, we rented an Airbnb, we were coming home, unloading everything, like, in work mode. And then I got this call from Rob.”
Because she doesn’t entertain unknown numbers, she left the phone ringing and unanswered. “(But) my baby brother, like, came running to me, and was like, ‘Answer your phone, answer your phone!’ And I was like, okay. So, I answered it, and then Rob was like, ‘Hello. I’m looking for Ariel.’ I was like, oh my gosh, and just crying for the whole day.”
As for the director, the three most important things when making a movie are “cast, cast and cast” and that casting an actor of color in the titular role was a “no-brainer”. As Rob further noted in the production notes, when he first saw Halle, who is one-half of the Grammy-nominated sibling duo Chloe x Halle, his impression was, “she was so young and sort of otherworldly, and the voice was simply angelic. Plus, she had a deep connection to what she was singing about.”
Based on the filmmakers’ account during a separate virtual presscon, it seemed they already knew Halle was the perfect actor to bring Ariel to life the moment she auditioned with the signature song Part of Your World.
Taking the press back to the day it happened, Alan shared his reaction when he first heard Halle sing: “She’s adorable. She’s completely adorable. She’s so talented. You can’t take your eyes off her.”
He continued, “The emotion is just right there on her face and in her voice. She’s just — she’s Halle Bailey. She’s a delicious person. And she’s amazing (as) Ariel.”
From the audition level, they were further validated with their choice as they moved into other levels such as recording of the songs and when the movie was finally being put together.
“Wyatt, the editor, kept tapping to bring over boxes of tissues for me. Because when we got to Part of Your World, I was just weeping,” Alan said.
His emotional reaction partly stemmed from him “remembering the innocence of what we put in there originally, and now look at it.” The animated original was released back in 1989.
The most interesting part throughout the journey of looking for Ariel is that the filmmakers found her just five minutes into Halle’s audition.
One of the producers, John DeLuca, recalled, “Well, when (Halle) first auditioned and sang the song for us, I turned to Rob and there were tears streaming down his face.”
The director explained, “I mean, here’s the thing. The first actor we saw for this role was Halle. The first thing she did was she came in and sang for us. And she sang that song. She shut her eyes and started to sing the song.
“And I thought, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I just thought she’s so deeply connected to what she’s singing about. It’s so emotional. It’s so beautiful. And I thought, (laughs) oh my gosh, we’ve been doing this for five minutes. Have we found Ariel? And we had.”
While they would still see hundreds of other actors after that, Halle kept coming back in.
“We saw every ethnicity. We saw everybody. And she claimed the role for hers. That’s what happened,” Rob said.
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