"That reassurance was something that I needed"- When Halle Bailey made her feelings clear about making The Little Mermaid

American actor and singer Halle Bailey landed the role of a lifetime with the live-action reboot of The Little Mermaid, where she was cast as Ariel. The movie was released in May 2023 to mixed reviews and a lot of controversy.

In an interview with Variety, Bailey opened up about being cast as only the second Black actor to play a Disney princess and how she wanted to inspire the upcoming generation.

"I want the little girl in me and the little girls just like me who are watching to know that they’re special, and that they should be a princess in every single way. There’s no reason that they shouldn’t be. That reassurance was something that I needed," she said.

Growing up, The Little Mermaid was one of Bailey's favorite Disney movies, and she would wear out her family’s VHS tape watching and rewatching the 1989 Disney animation. So it was a big deal when she landed the role of Ariel in the 2023 live-action remake of the movie.

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Halle Bailey shared about her lead role as Ariel in The Little Mermaid

Halle Bailey was only the second Black actor to play the role of a Disney princess after Anika Noni Rose, who voiced Tiana in The Princess and the Frog. Halle was aware of the significance of her role as Ariel. She spoke about how inspirational her casting would have been for her younger self to see Ariel as a person of color on screen,

“What that would have done for me, how that would have changed my confidence, my belief in myself, everything. Things that seem so small to everyone else, it’s so big to us.”

Despite being met with criticism for her role because she is a person of color who was playing a white Disney princess, Bailey recalled how her family showed her support and said,

“It was an inspiring and beautiful thing to hear their words of encouragement, telling me, ‘You don’t understand what this is doing for us, for our community, for all the little Black and brown girls who are going to see themselves in you,’”

Following several delays due to the pandemic, The Little Mermaid opened in theaters in May 2023, marking a critical point in Bailey’s career as she made the leap from music to film.

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Halle Bailey opened up about her experience filming The Little Mermaid

Bailey was only 18 when she auditioned for the role and 21 when she finished production. She had to move away from her home in Los Angeles to London for shooting in the UK and Italy. It was the longest she had ever been away from her family.

The first time that Halle Bailey really saw herself as Ariel was during her screen test, when the movie's costume designer Colleen Atwood began work with her. Talking about that experience she shared,

“Have you ever seen that Hilary Duff movie where she has a twin and she’s thrown into a room to put on all these clothes? I felt like that.”

To prepare for the role, Bailey started honing her skills with acting lessons. However, therapy was more helpful. She said,

“If you have a really big emotional scene where you’re crying, you have to pull that from someplace."

Bailey also admitted that she is very emotional as a person.

“If I’m feeling overwhelmed, or when I get my angriest, my reaction is I just cry. I can try to be so tough, and so strong, and then it just comes out", she shared.

Although Halle Bailey is now entering the film industry, music remains her passion. She rose to fame for creating and posting music with her sister Chloe Bailey, and they have released a number of albums like The Kids Are Alright (2018) and Ungodly Hour (2020).

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Apart from the live-action animation, Halle Bailey has also starred in the television sitcom Grown-ish (2018–2022) and had a supporting role in the musical film The Color Purple.