With Halle Bailey as "Ariel", a black actress slips into the role of a Disney princess for the first time. Now she is commenting on the hustle and bustle surrounding her cast.
New York – Since May 25, Halle Bailey can be seen in German cinemas as "The Little Mermaid". As great as the anticipation of a live film adaptation of the Disney classic was for many, it was limited for others. The hashtag #NotMyArielle (too German: Not my Ariel) suddenly circulated on social networks and some fans announced that they would boycott the film.
The reason: With the black actress Halle Bailey in the lead role, Ariel does not correspond to the "classic version" of 1989. But it is precisely this aspect that sends an important message, the actress now emphasized personally.
Halle Bailey as Ariel in a scene from the movie "The Little Mermaid." © Disney/dpa
Ariel actress Halle Bailey as a child: "We deserve to occupy this space"
A significant moment for the now 23-year-old actress was when she saw the cartoon "Kiss the Frog" for the first time in 2009. There, Anika Noni Rose embodies the first Black princess in a Disney film. At that time, this changed her entire perspective on life. After the movie, Bailey thought to herself as a kid, "Wow, this is possible. Black princesses are possible. We deserve to occupy this space."
For the singer and actress, the role of Ariel was a real dream, as she told Glamour US in an interview. Also because she herself is a big fan of the story. "I remember Ariel was the reason I wanted to swim," said Bailey, who fell in love with The Little Mermaid's original when she was five. "When I saw her, I thought, 'She's so beautiful, I want to be a mermaid too. She didn't look like me, but I didn't have a problem with that, because I was used to that at the time."
Halle Bailey plays "The Little Mermaid" – first black Disney princess triggers emotions
In 2019, the time had come. Through her agent, Bailey learned that the producers would like to see her in the casting. After months of silence, she suddenly received the news that she would embody the new Ariel. "I freaked out, I screamed. I thought, 'Is this real life?'" Bailey continued. "I was catapulted into this new world."
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Fancy a voyage of discovery?
I attended the world premiere of "Ariel" at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. © Jordan Strauss/dpa
After the public had also learned about it, many discussions circulated on the net – but also emotions. Videos showed black children seeing the teaser for the first time and rejoicing that "The Little Mermaid" now looked like them. In one shot, a girl can be seen crying. "She looks like me!" says another girl in another video. Shortly thereafter, the first long trailer for "The Little Mermaid" followed.
"Ariel" actress Halle Bailey: Producers were not explicitly looking for a black actress
"When I saw them for the first time, I just cried," Bailey said while talking about the children's videos. "I sobbed uncontrollably. The fact that these babies look at me and feel the emotions they feel is a really humbling, beautiful thing."
What does "People of Color" mean?
"The term People of Color (in the singular Person of Color) is a self-designation of people who experience racism. The term has been used in this sense since the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1960s. People of Color describes a solidary alliance of different communities that experience structural exclusion due to racism as a re-appropriation and positive reinterpretation of the pejorative attribution 'colored'."
Source: Diversity Arts Culture
For director Rob Marshall, too, the sight of the reactions of black children once again reminded him of the importance of representativeness. Although, according to his own statement, it was not even his intention or that of those responsible to specifically choose a woman of color for the remake of "The Little Mermaid". They were only interested in finding the best cast, Marshall said at the premiere in Berlin. "When she came to us, read and sang for us, she set the bar so high, no one could beat it." (nz/dpa)
