When a little girl hugged her at Disney World in March, Halle Bailey, who plays the lead role of Ariel in the non-animated film version of “The Little Mermaid,” struggled to maintain her composure. But when she brought home to her a box of sequined The Little Mermaid dolls with auburn hair and tan skin, she couldn’t help herself.
“I sat on the floor and cried,” Bailey said. As one half of Chloe x Halle, the sisterly R&B duo, Bailey, 23, has been delighting YouTube audiences with renditions of Beyoncé classics. But she grew up idolizing Disney Princess Ariel, never imagining that she would play her.
When Bailey and her older sisters Ski and Chloe flapped imaginary fins in the pool as kids, she would pretend to be Ariel. Bailey was drawn to Ariel’s curiosity about the unknown and her fortitude. The mermaid princess was part of the reason she learned to swim, she said.
It might sound like Bailey is living a dream, and in many ways she says she is. But there was an ugly racist backlash to the announcement that a black star had been cast as Disney royalty.
The plot of the non-animated “The Little Mermaid” film remains largely true to the original: Ariel loses her voice to experience the surface world and must receive true love’s kiss from Prince Eric. But in this interpretation, Ariel and Prince Eric share a yearning for adventure that outweighs their desire for romance. Through it all, Bailey’s powerful voice, her boyish laugh, and her infectious charisma make her sound like a true princess.
He was born into a musical family in Atlanta, Georgia. Halle and Chloe Bailey, now 24, sang around town for anyone who would listen. Online, they posted their covers of classic R&B titles, and when their cover of Beyoncé’s “Best Thing I Never Had” went viral, the star discovered them herself and signed them to her label, Parkwood Entertainment.
With Beyoncé as a mentor, the sisters released their own albums, racking up five Grammy nominations each. They opened for the singer during her Formation World Tour in Europe in 2016 and participated in her On the Run II tour two years later.
Director Rob Marshall and John DeLuca, a producer of “The Little Mermaid,” had been eyeing Bailey for the role from the moment they saw Chloe x Halle pay homage to Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack with “Where is the Love.” at the 2019 Grammys.
“I saw this beautiful young woman who seemed to come from another world and had this angelic voice, and I thought, wow, who is she?” Marshall said.
The role required emotional grit, physical strength, and a touch of naivety. Bailey’s mornings began at 4 a.m. with stunt practice in the gym, followed by hours suspended from platforms and crane arms to simulate a floating effect. Bailey soaked up like a sponge, Marshall said, the talent and skill of her co-stars, including Melissa McCarthy as the villainous sea witch Ursula and Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric.
“It’s so moving, and it’s not so much the voice — but the voice is extraordinary,” DeLuca said. “That’s why you just want to stand up and applaud her.”
But not everyone felt the same. Some fans of “The Little Mermaid” attacked her casting with the hashtag #NotMyAriel (#NoMiAriel).
For Bailey, dealing with racism is part of her reality as a black woman. Instead, she said, she thinks about what diversity can bring to the Disney story. “I just focus on the positives and the greatness that I’ve been seeing in the reactions of these beautiful babies,” Bailey said. “That’s what’s special to me.”
By: KALIA RICHARDSON
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6740814, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-06-01 18:20:09
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