We’re solely days away from The Little Mermaid hitting theaters. It’s been a wild trip for Halle Bailey, whose audition for the titular position was so highly effective it made everybody within the room cry.
Illustration has been an enormous a part of the dialog surrounding the movie. Final yr, Bailey revealed what her grandparents instructed her in response to racist backlash to her position. “It was an inspiring and delightful factor to listen to their phrases of encouragement,” she defined, “telling me, ‘You don’t perceive what that is doing for us, for our neighborhood, for all of the little Black and brown ladies who’re going to see themselves in you.’”
In a brand new cowl story by Glamour, Bailey talked extra about how pleased she is to have the ability to encourage younger Black ladies by starring within the film. “After I noticed these for the primary time, I simply cried,” she instructed the journal about viral movies of them reacting to her as Ariel. “I used to be sobbing uncontrollably. The truth that these infants are me and feeling the feelings that they’re feeling is a extremely humbling, lovely factor.”
Bailey additionally touched on what illustration she’s skilled in media that impressed her, mentioning Anika Noni Rose within the 2009 animated The Princess and the Frog. “I understand how a lot of that film modified my complete perspective on life,” she defined. “Wow, that is doable. Black princesses are doable. We need to take up these areas too.”
The Little Mermaid arrives in theaters on Could 26.
