The Little Mermaid's Melissa McCarthy Breaks Down Her Ursula Process (Exclusive)

The Little Mermaid is being released in theaters later this month, and it marks Disney's latest live-action remake of one of their beloved animated films. The cast for the new film includes Halle Bailey as Ariel, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, Awkwafina as Scuttle, and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula. In honor of the new film, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with some of the cast, including McCarthy. During the interview, we asked the star what it was like getting to play such an iconic villain and how she prepared for the role.

"I think I prepared like I always do," McCarthy explained. "I kind of just start to dissect them. And I've talked about it before, I think a lot about people's armor and what you kind of put on as your facade and what that really hides. And if you're, you know, Ursula, she's such a great broad, and in my heart, she always had a drink, and it was all that, but what is it really hiding?"

McCarthy added, "She's been isolated. She's terribly lonely. She wasn't allowed to have a family. She was rejected by her family. I think her mental health is not good. I mean, and going through the pandemic and being in lockdown, I think coming out of that, I was like, 'I think we all understand how we're not supposed to be solitary creatures and what that does to you.' And suddenly she just really, I mean, I focused on all of it because once she became very real to me, I kind of can't do one without the other. It's not like 'the voice' and the 'this' anymore. It's just kind of like 'it's Ursula.' I don't know if that sounds crazy."

ComicBook.com also spoke with director Rob Marshall about McCarthy's take on Ursala and the character's look in the film.

"In the first scene when you meet her, you're just seeing pieces," Marshall explained. "You're just like a little tease, like her eyes, a little sort of reflection. You're not seeing much of her ... But then the second time you see her, you see the full octopus, she's really an octopus. And it's like, 'Wow,' it's exciting to see. He continued, "The great thing about Melissa in this role, she's fearless and so physical. So having her slide down the clamshell and doing all of that kind of thing or lunge or leap or dive, she did all of that. It was really thrilling." 

Melissa McCarthy Took Inspiration From Drag For Ursala:

"There's a drag queen that lives in me," McCarthy recently told EW about her take on the original animated character, who was inspired by the drag queen Divine. "I'm always right on the verge of going full-time with her… To keep the humor and the sadness and the edginess to Ursula is everything I want in a character — and frankly, everything I want in a drag queen."

The scorned sea witch is "the villain, but there's such an edge to her," McCarthy continued. "She's been put in this lair. It's like she's had too many martinis alone. Her friends are eels. That is a woman who has seen it, been in it, dug her way back out. All my references are terrible, but I kept thinking, 'Many a Pall Mall has this woman had.'"

The Little Mermaid swims into theaters on May 26th