‘The Little Mermaid’ director addresses the racist backlash for casting Halle Bailey as Ariel

‘The Little Mermaid’ director addresses the racist backlash for casting Halle Bailey as Ariel: 

“We just were looking for the best actor for the role, period. The end. We saw everybody and every ethnicity.”

In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, the director of the upcoming Little Mermaid starring Halle Bailey has defended the decision to cast a Black actress for the lead role. As most will probably remember, when Halle was announced to have landed the part of Ariel in the Disney motion picture, there was a lot of backlash from people questioning why the studio decided to hire a person of color when Ariel — a fictional animated character — was white in the 1989 classic and all of the spin-offs that trailed after.

It was heavily implied that Disney may have had an agenda by casting a Black woman for the role, which the film’s director Rob Marshall has now vehemently denied, stressing that actresses of all ethnicities had been considered for the part. “We just were looking for the best actor for the role, period. The end,” he shared.

“We saw everybody and every ethnicity. [The goal was to find someone who can be] incredibly strong, passionate, beautiful, smart, clever [and with] a great deal of fire and joy.” Rob went on to praise Halle for the way in which she embodied the character with her “ethereal” and “beautiful voice,” saying it beautifully “captures the heart of Prince Eric who looks for her the entire film.” The film enters cinemas in May.