- And all her arms would be around her.
She would move and one of the dancers would move.
- I know, it's like even if I wanted to do this,
like a dancer would, the tentacle would come up
and I was like, "This is fantastic.
I need this in my life."
(bright music)
- Hi, I'm Halle Bailey and I play Ariel.
- Hi, I'm Melissa McCarthy, I play Ursula,
and we are here today answering burning questions
from Buzzfeed Australia.
I think that's what I was supposed to say.
(Halle laughs) (bright music)
For me it was about an hour and 20 because no hair
'cause the hair was all done digitally afterwards.
But I know, no wigs, which is tricky for me.
I'm better with a wig,
kind of in all circumstances in my life.
- It didn't take me long for all of the underwater stuff.
- Yeah. - Like you said,
I wore the little cap and then they put dots on me.
It was like an hour. - Yeah.
- Wait, so the hair was done digitally?
- Every strand of everyone's hair, anything under the water,
there's no way to do it practically.
- Yeah. - So it was all done later,
which I think is, Javier's beard, everything.
- That was actually one of the questions I had
while watching movie.
I'm like, "How is the movement just so like."
- It just took about 1,000 people in post
that were very, very good at their job.
(gentle music)
- It would either be nothing at all or a tennis ball
or a very, very small version of the crab, Sebastian.
Sometimes it'd only be his eyeballs,
or Flounder sometimes would just be like-
- Like a little toy version? - His little nose, yeah.
And they would hold them in place and then be like,
"Okay, take 'em away." (laughs)
- Each tentacle, it was like a 10 foot tentacle
that a dancer puppeted.
So I had them on and as I made our moves,
'cause there was a whole rigging system
for even the littlest motion.
There was a whole team that moved with you.
So it was really like learning choreography
with 15 other people, sometimes just to move five feet.
It was an insane system that really worked beautifully.
But when we first started, I think I was like,
you were already so good at it,
'cause I came later, but I was like.
But we were never on the ground.
- Yeah.
And all her arms would be around her.
She would move and one of the dancers would move.
- I know, it's like, even if I wanted to do this,
like a dancer would, the tentacle would come up
and I was like, "This is fantastic.
I need this in my life."
(bright music)
- When it first hit me was when I
found out I was gonna be screen testing
for the role of Ariel.
Basically when you do these auditions,
it's like levels, you get three levels.
The first audition, you get a callback.
If you get a callback, you're like, "Okay, that's cool.
They called me back."
And then you go, if you get another callback,
it's like, "Uh oh, okay."
And then it's like,
"Okay, the final level is the screen test."
So I was like, "Uh oh, something must be going on."
So Colleen Atwood, she came to my house,
this legendary Oscar-winning lady is measuring me
and I'm like, "Oh my gosh. We're all here."
And she made this beautiful standing mermaid costume for me.
It was so special.
Nude, beautiful sequins only over my bust and arms
and then the tail.
It was just really beautiful.
So when I stood in the screen test, I was in a costume,
and I think that was when I was hit with like,
"Wow, this is really magical."
Once I found out I got the role,
seeing, of course, the real costume was like,
blew my head out the water.
But the screen test one, I still was like, "What?"
- I am such a huge super fan of Colleen Atwood
and getting to just see her whole process
and everything she does, you're like, "Oh that's different.
That's different. It's better.
It's more historically accurate," or like,
I mean, and I'm such a nerd for costumes that,
and she would walk in and she'd be like, "Why are you here?"
And I'm like, "I'm just watching the embroiders
do what they do," and she's like, "What?"
And I would just kind of always be in her,
I think she thinks I'm probably insane,
but it was such a magical thing
and it really is like,
everything she does just is exquisite.
(bright music)
Yeah, a mixture. - Yeah.
- I mean you, you dealt with every situation.
If you were underwater, there was no water.
- Mm-hmm. - So ironically,
if you're underwater, there's zero water involved.
- Yeah. - But if you kind of crest
the water on top,
then you were wet. - Yep.
- You had to do, she did it all.
(Halle laughs)
- And was that, kind of comes
with the physical experience as well beforehand?
Doing all the mermaid movements and everything,
was that part of the experience?
- Yeah, I mean I went through a lot of training,
like stunt training just so we would know how
to be in the hardest and on wires when we shot all
of the blue screen work,
as well as diving lessons.
I got to really feel what it was like
to be under the water and swim like a mermaid.
I worked with synchronized swimmers
to give me the graceful mermaid swim, which was so cool.
It was lovely to be able to be in the water,
though, when I could.
But yeah, like Melissa said,
the blue screen was a lot
of our time. - Yeah, a lot of it.
- Yeah.
(gentle music)
Yes, actually, I was, well number one,
I was really grateful to be cast in this role
and I think that as a Black woman,
I wanted to keep the essence of who I was.
I feel like if you cast somebody that's me,
you should keep all the things that are natural to her.
So I was really happy to Rob and John
for being really open and allowing me to keep the essence
of me and my locks, which are very special to me.
I've had them since I was five and what that means.
And so having that as well as a fusion with the loose hair,
like I feel like a mermaid would have a mixture
of hair like that, you know, too.
So I was just grateful,
pieces like that, I was able to keep of Halle
and yeah, they were really open with me in that way.
(bright music)