Making a splash

Star of the live action remake of The Little Mermaid, Halle Bailey talks to Bree Player about the role of Ariel, representation and being pals with Beyoncé

- Bree Player

You are staring as Ariel in the remake of The Little Mermaid. Can you take me back to the moment when you found out the role was yours?

I was overjoyed! I was so excited. I felt like I was living in a dream. I have loved this movie ever since I was young, and getting to be such a big part of this is really a blessing.

Many little girls dream of being a Disney princess, and now you are one. What does that mean to you? 

It truly means the world. I get to not only reinvent this character, but I also show other young Black and brown kids that we can be anything we want to be. And we deserve to be in these spaces, too. It’s beautiful.

When the casting of Ariel was announced, there were some ugly corners of the internet that met the news with racism. #notmyariel was trending, simply because some people refused to accept an Ariel who had skin that was a different colour to the animated Ariel. Did you anticipate it? And how did you cope with it? 

I definitely knew that it would be a conversation. But I didn’t really take it to heart. Sometimes in this world, we are just gonna have to deal with things like that. I surround myself with family and friends who lift me up. At the end of the day, people are going to comment on it, because that’s just the way of the world today. I focused on staying positive throughout all of that.