Halle Bailey reveals why preparing for role of Ariel in 'The Little Mermaid' drove her to tears
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: As Halle Bailey, one half of the Grammy-nominated duo of Chloe X Halle, is ready for the opening of her live-action adaptation of Disney classic ‘The Little Mermaid’ on Friday, May 26, it is imperative to discuss how the singer landed the acting job. Halle’s landing the lead role of Ariel is nothing short of a Disney story in itself.
As teenagers, Halle, and her older sister Chloe Bailey started posting song covers on YouTube. After posting a cover of Beyonce’s ‘Pretty Hurts’, the Grammy-winning pop star became their mentor and initiated record deals with the Bailey sisters. Since then there was no looking back.
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The director of 'The Little Mermaid', Rob Marshall noticed Halle for the first time when the sisters were performing ‘Where Is the Love?’ during the 2019 Grammy Awards program. The enthralled Marshall asked her to audition for the role, and Halle managed to win over the director once again with her soulful rendition of the classic ‘The Little Mermaid’ number ‘Part of Your World’. Marshall said, “When she finished, I was in tears because she’s so soulful,” before adding, “You could tell right away that she was able to harness Ariel’s passion, her fire, her soul, her joy and her heart,” as per Variety.
On Halle's acting capabilities, Marshall said, “Halle had this incredible facility to be able to dig deep, find the truth of Ariel’s passion and her heart,” concluding, “It was like watching a great film actor being born.”
'I went through a lot of mermaid training'
Preparing for the role was a task in itself. Halle shared on 'Live with Kelly and Mark' that while the production of the entire film was a spectacular experience in itself consisting of abundant usages of VFX and CGI, she herself had to undergo special mermaid training. ‘The Kids Are Alright’ star said, “I went through a lot of mermaid training.” before adding, “Because I spent a lot of time on what you call a blue screen, I would be in a harness and wires,” continuing to say that she was “basically suspended in the air.”
Since most of the film is set in the water, Halle at times had to “simulate” swimming. She further recalled, “I was in the water for about I think like half of filming as well so it was a mixture of both. So all of the water scenes that you see - the Shipwreck, me saving Jonah, all of that was in the tank.” Luckily she had fun while filming as she added, “That was so much fun.”
When she was asked about the temperature of the water, she responded in affirmative saying she hates being cold, but that the water in the tank was fortunately warm. Talking about the intense training that she had to undergo, Halle said she was in the best shape of her life as she went to the gym at 4 am every day which was followed by an intense filming schedule.
'You have to pull that from someplace'
In her interview with Variety, Halle also shared that acting lessons were crucial for her to adapt to the role of Ariel. However, she found therapy to be an important tool in order to adapt to the “emotional” scenes. She said, “If you have a really big emotional scene where you’re crying, you have to pull that from someplace.”
It was not only about the physical preparation that mattered. She decided to make use of her memories with her father, Doug Bailey, to get the dynamics with Javier Bardem who plays King Triton’s character. She explained, “I would always talk about [how] my dad is like a mirror of King Triton; he’s always been so overprotective of my sister and I,” before adding, “That’s one of the things that we love about him — the way he loves. When I had scenes with Javier, I just pulled from my experience with my own father: how deep that love is, and how strong and protective they get.”