- I'm Halle Bailey,
and this is my journey to Ariel.
[upbeat music]
I was about five years old
when I first watched "The Little Mermaid."
A lot of people will be shocked to know
that my favorite Disney princess growing up,
it was Ariel, no lie.
I really think she had a lot to do
with the fact that I wanted to learn how to swim
and be in the water all the time.
So when my sister and I and my brother
would be in the pool,
we would just pretend to be mermaids.
Yeah, it was the best thing ever. [chuckles]
[upbeat electronic music]
I actually auditioned for this role when I was 18 years old,
and I'm turning 23 this year and it's now coming out.
So it was a wild journey for me.
But I was really excited
to kind of share this journey with Ariel,
and I was breaking barriers along with her
when her character was breaking barriers.
And I remember being in the harness in the air
and swinging around all day
as well as like being in the tank and the water
for hours at a time.
And I truly felt like I was breaking out of my shell
that I had been in for so long.
Ariel is so fiery and passionate
about what she wants for herself and her future.
And I truly felt like, you know,
she's telling me, "You can do it". [chuckles]
I truly was in the best shape of my life
when I was filming, like, two years ago. [laughs]
Of course, now I'm home and it's different,
but when you wake up
and you have people to help you all the time,
I mean, the training, it was like cardio, stamina.
I had to do a lot of core work
'cause I would be on the harness and then swimming.
It was just a lot.
Like, when you're doing that a lot every day,
you get really strong.
A basic day on set would be like 4:00 AM I would wake up.
I ended up living by the Thames,
like a a river in London, which was really beautiful.
But Pinewood, where we were shooting at,
was like an hour and a half commute.
So I'd have to wake up like super earlier, earlier
than my call time just to get there.
So then when I would get there, I think, by like 5:30,
I would go in the gym.
I would do work
with this beautiful personal trainer named Selana,
who I love, who was like my sister
'cause she was with me every day at 5:00 AM. [chuckles]
And we would do that, and then from there,
I would go to stunts from like 7:00 to 9:00.
And then after stunts,
I would go into hair and makeup.
And you know they would have a few hours,
I think like two hours.
And then finally after that,
it'd be like, "Okay we're ready for you on set."
And then I would go and I'd spend all day on set.
But if I was working on like a blue screen day,
I would have to put on all of my gear,
like my padding and everything, my harness.
And then they would just hoist me up in the air,
and I'd just be swinging and swimming in the air.
The first two months of filming
were really hilarious to me,
'cause every day I would go on set,
but I would have to act with nothing in front of me.
I would be talking to these amazing puppeteers.
They would kind of tease me
and allow me to act with like these puppets.
And then when we'd shoot, they'd be like, "Okay, Halle."
And they'd take them away.
So then I'm left with like the air to just talk to.
So I have to look at you.
I'd have to act like we're having a conversation right now,
but there's nobody here right?
So it's really a really funny thing to do
and I felt crazy a lot of the time. [chuckles]
It was just a really funny experience.
But from there, then it would be the end of the day.
I would be there all day,
and then I'd go home and go to sleep
and do it again the next day.
Ariel's glam for me
was something that was really an exciting and fresh moment
for me to go through,
because I have the original version of her in my head.
And I was like always wondering, like, what will they do?
But the fact
that Rob really wanted to champion me and my natural hair
and keeping it
was something that was really exciting for me.
'Cause I had multiple looks.
I was so excited about my tail look,
about my underwater look,
because I was like, "What will I look like as a mermaid?"
And Colleen Atwood, the head costume designer,
she's amazing.
I mean, she's like Oscar-winning, just a legend.
And she was dressing me in all these beautiful things.
And I'm like, "Whoa, what is going on?"
What was funny when I was on set
is that half the time when I was doing blue screen work,
I would wear like a uniform.
So I would go into work every day
with like a cap on
and like dots all over my face
and my body so that they could track my movements
and, of course, just cut me in half
and transfer the top half of my body
onto a tail in the end with the CGI.
I can tell you about the four new original songs
and that they are beautiful, number one.
The original ones already have my heart.
♪ I don't know where ♪
♪ I don't know how ♪
But the fact that I got to be in the room with Alan and Lin
when they were creating
these new beautiful moments for us
was really special.
I truly feel like we deserve that kind of evolution
with these songs.
These new songs really, really help us with that.
Our version is a new version,
and it mirrors our modern world.
It's not just about her falling in love,
which is wonderful, which is great,
but it's also about her need and wants for herself
and her future and her passions.
Working with Javier Bardem was a dream come true.
First of all, I was a huge fan of his like we all are.
And so going into filming
and to meeting him and to rehearsals,
I immediately thought I was gonna meet like this tough guy.
Like, I thought he was gonna be very stoic.
I met him,
and he's like the sweetest teddy bear man you've ever met,
[chuckles] like the kindest, sweetest soul.
And I just had a great time with him
and bonded with him the whole time throughout filming.
And I truly felt like he was my dad on set,
and he's just an angel.
He's literally the kindest human being you can ever meet.
I have so many fun stories working with Melissa. [laughs]
First of all, she's just a hilarious human being,
and I love her so much.
But the fact that she is taking on Ursula
was really exciting to watch.
She's a powerhouse.
- [Ursula] That's what I live for.
- I remember when we were filming "Poor Unfortunate Souls."
I think it took like two days to do that whole sequence.
And it was so much fun just to watch her in all her glory.
And it's funny because the dancers,
each dancer was one of her octopus legs,
so she had like eight dancers around her
like stacking up and like mirroring her.
It was just really cool to watch.
Jonah was an amazing Prince Eric, he was so great.
I was just so happy to have somebody like on set with me.
We were both like going through the ringer in the water,
in the air.
It was a lot for the both of us,
and we just bonded over the fact
that we were like, wow, this is really big.
I absolutely think this is a full circle moment
for me to be able to combine my love of acting and singing.
It's a dream really to do the two things that you love
and do it to fulfill a beautiful remake
of this movie that you've loved since you were younger.
It's like almost healing to the inner child in me.
[upbeat music]
I think that everyone
can look forward to new music from me soon, very soon.
I have been like working quietly on it for a while,
ever since I got home from filming "Mermaid," of course.
You know, I definitely think it's a bit of a different sound
than people are used to hearing from me with my sister.
I am very influenced by jazz melodies
and, you know, rock and soul,
and so it's a mixture.
But I cannot wait for people
to finally be able to hear my perspective of things.
Thank you so much Glamour for joining me.
Thanks for listening to my stories.
Bye.
[upbeat music]