'The Little Mermaid': Why Jonah Hauer-King owes Prince Eric's role to Harry Styles
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Disney had its task cut out for them when they started searching for the prince to star opposite Halle Bailey’s Ariel/Little Mermaid. As the live-action remake of the 1989 Disney animation flick ‘The Little Mermaid’ is all set to hit the theaters on Friday, May 26, the character actors for the prince and princess, Jonah Hauer-King and Halle Bailey, have become the talk of the town.
The casting of Jonah Hauer-King of ‘A Dog’s Way Home’ and ‘The Song of Names’ fame was nothing short of a Disney fairytale. While Hauer-King was not the only contender for the role, he definitely emerged as the winner beating out competitors including the likes of Harry Styles and funnyman Jack Whitehall.
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Why was Harry Styles not cast as Prince Eric?
It was reported that, while the ‘Watermelon Sugar’ singer was approached for the role, Styles himself declined the offer as he was keener on doing darker films. Director Rob Marshall of the 2023 adaptation of ‘The Little Mermaid’ told Entertainment Weekly, "We met with him. He was lovely. What a wonderful guy," before adding, "But at the end of the day, he really felt like he wanted to go off and do the movies that he ended up doing, which were sort of darker."
Styles, in fact, went on to star in two movies in 2022, including ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ and ‘My Policeman’, which were poles apart from the Disney live-action flick. Marshall continued to explain, "For a lot of young musical people like Harry, you're trying to carve your way and you don't wanna be seen as a singer, necessarily.” The director of ‘Chicago’ opined that Styles was trying to disassociate from the image of a musician and continued, "That's why he was really looking to do something not in the musical genre, to really stretch himself. It was really a fun idea to play with, but in the end, I always think things happen for a reason. I'm so happy to have two young, new people in the film."
How was Jonah Hauer-King cast for the role of Eric?
A fairy tale in itself, Hauer-King, who has had musical credit from ‘Little Women’ and ‘Postcards from London’, lost his voice just before the day he was scheduled to sing in front of Marshall. However, he visited Marshall again after a few weeks to appear for an audition. He also appeared in screen tests alongside the ‘Grown-ish’ star Bailey. That finally sealed the deal.
Noting his initial intention to appear for the audition was just for a “fun experience,” he said he was thankful to get selected. Talking about Styles, who was also a contender for the role, he said, “He’s pretty cool and amazingly talented, so yeah, it was cool to be mentioned in the same breath,” reports The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve never done so much training in my life,” he added.
How was Hauer-King and Halle Bailey’s first meeting?
As fate would have it, the first meeting of the future prince and Bailey was also magical. They first met during the London audition for the role where “three other guys were also vying for the Eric part,” said Hauer-King to Entertainment Weekly. The 2017 ‘Lilltle Women’ star recalled Bailey to be full of kindness and warmth as he said, "I didn't take her being kind to me as any indication," before adding, "I just assumed she was a lovely person and would've done that for anyone."
Bailey indeed welcomed Hauer-King to her princessdom as she knocked on the Cambridge-educated British musician-actor’s door to share her hopes of seeing him again. The ‘World on Fire’ star continued, "I thought, 'What does it all mean? Is that an indication? Did she knock on everyone's door?'" However, it turned out to be a good sign as Hauer-King was later selected for the role.