The Little Mermaid Director Defends Halle Bailey's Color-Blind Casting: "Let's Find the Best Ariel"

"I think that the spirit of a character is what really matters," Jodi Benson, who voiced the animated Ariel in The Little Mermaid, said in 2019 when defending Disney's casting of Halle Bailey in the live-action re-imagining. "What you bring to the table in a character as far as their heart and their spirit is what really counts." For the film's director Rob Marshall, there was another matter: Ariel's voice. In response to racist backlash that Disney cast a Black actress to portray the role, Marshall says that Bailey — one half of Grammy-nominated R&B duo Chloe x Halle — surfaced as his first pick to play the undersea princess when he saw the recording artist cover "Where Is the Love" at the 2019 Grammys. 

"I first saw Halle on the Grammys, when we had just started casting. We were looking everywhere, and there was no agenda to cast a woman of color. Just, let's find the best Ariel," Marshall told Deadline. "And then I saw this beautiful creature, singing like an angel on the Grammys. I thought, who is this? We brought her in. I had no idea if she could act, but thought, she's so kind of ethereal and otherworldly about her."

When Bailey performed "Part of Your World," Marshall recalled, "By the end of the song, I was in tears. I wasn't even aware that I was in tears. She was so deeply connected to the emotion of the song. You know, she just has a natural depth to her."

After casting the then-19-year-old Bailey, who was at the time best known for her role on television's Grown-ish, Marshall said in a statement: "After an extensive search, it was abundantly clear that Halle possesses that rare combination of spirit, heart, youth, innocence and substance — plus a glorious singing voice — all intrinsic qualities necessary to play this iconic role." 

"The thing about Ariel that's so tricky is that you're asking for so many things. You're asking for innocence and vulnerability, but strength at the same time. Strong-willed, almost bullheaded kind of character who sees what they want and goes to get it. But there had to be joy from her, and Halle had all of that," the Oscar-nominated Chicago director told Deadline. "She was the first actor we saw for the film, the first one. And then we saw everybody else. She set the bar so high, and nobody surpassed that bar. We did a screen test with her, and it was just, well, this is it. I went immediately to [Disney CEO] Bob Iger with the screen test, and within minutes he said, yes, of course. She's Ariel."

Starring Halle Bailey as Ariel, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, Awkwafina as Scuttle, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Art Malik as Grimsby, Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selena, Javier Bardem as King Triton, and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Disney's The Little Mermaid opens only in theaters May 26th.