Hello and welcome to the Queendom. I'm Sarah Ingle and today
we're going to talk all about the casting for the new live-action Little Mermaid
If you happen to be living under a rock
just like Patrick who also lives under the sea
then you may not have heard yet that Halle Bailey, not Halle Berry
has been cast as Ariel in Disney's new live-action Little Mermaid
So first, who is Halle Bailey?
There's a singing sister duo called Cloe x Halle
and last year they were nominated for a Grammy
and what's really cool is they actually got their start on YouTube singing covers
and then Beyonce discovered them and signed them to her label
They even sang the national anthem at the Superbowl this year
So these, these girls are already up and coming big people - they're already doing a lot of big things
So they're not complete unknown but they're not
They're not like the likes of Emma Watson who was a mega star before she was cast as Belle in Beauty & the Beast
which I have my own thoughts about that which we can get into a little bit more later
Since she is a singer, she has a fantastic voice, which I am very excited about.
In fact, if you haven't heard her sing "Unforgettable"
Halle: [singing] Unforgettable, that's what you are
I think some people were surprised by the casting
and honestly I don't know why they were that surprised by the casting
because it seems like the Internet has been campaigning for what feels like years
for Zendaya to be Ariel in the live-action Little Mermaid
so I don't understand why the Internet has blown up quite as much as it has
over this supposed controversy about casting an African-American girl as Ariel
when it seems like this is what people have been asking for for years.
The Internet... never ceases to be the Internet.
But there are a lot of reasons I feel like people should have seen this coming
For instance, Disney on Broadway and at The Hyperion [in Disneyland] have been casting
African Americans as Annas and Elsas
And Kristoffs, too, I believe
And also I believe the last Ariel they had in the national tour was Asian
My sister and my mom saw her, and she was amazing
and I know people are like, "But she's Danish! It's a Danish tale!"
It's a Danish tale, but that doesn't mean that the sea creature has to be of a certain ethnicity.
That, that's a little bit of a stretch.
So in Aladdin, in Aladdin the original fairytale, Aladdin's Chinese
but Disney changed it, and everybody's okay with it.
People love Aladdin.
People seem to be are upset because when they look at her they don't initially see what they think of
when they think of The Little Mermaid with the red hair and the blue eyes.
What's funny is, The Little Mermaid was never even intended to have red hair.
The only reason they changed her hair to red was because she was originally supposed to be blonde,
but they thought that with the green fin and the purple shells that the red just looked better on screen.
Okay, the big thing that I feel like nobody's talking about
is that she actually does look like Ariel.
And you're gonna be like, "But, wait wait wait wait wait!"
So part of my job, if you didn't know, I'm a co-owner of a princess party company
So part of my job is to cast people who fit these roles
So part of that is you have to be able to envision what that person is going to look like
in the wig, in the contacts, in the makeup
what they're going to look like as the character before you bring them in.
Yes, we wind up having them try things on with the wigs and such, but
we have a pretty good idea in our heads what they're going to look like.
And this girl, Halle, looks so much like Ariel!
And people are, are just blinded by the fact that the coloring is different
But if this girl had flaming red hair and blue eyes - she doesn't even need the blue eyes
But she still looks so much like Ariel
her smile, her eyes, her face
She has the most princess-y face I have seen on almost anybody
So the fact that people are like, "She doesn't look like the original--" She actually does.
I think it's just the red hair. And you know what, they might have her dye her hair red.
They might have her wear a red wig.
We don't know, but if you actually just envision in your head
Try.
Try with me.
Picture... Halle Bailey. Red Hair.
Maybe add a mermaid tail
If you really wanna stretch it, you can picture the blue eyes, too, and she looks just like the cartoon
It's a little weird.
And thank goodness she can sing!
Like honestly, that's one of the most important things for this role
I know it's a little bit of an unpopular opinion with some
and I know there's definitely others who agree with me
but I really feel like Beauty and the Beast was ruined because Emma Watson can't sing.
It was so incredibly autotuned; the music was a disaster.
The entire soundtrack sounded like it was produced by T-Pain,
and every time she opened her mouth to sing it sounded like a robot to me
If they would do that with The Little Mermaid, it would --
it would beyond ruin the movie
because the whole point of it is that she has this incredible voice.
I've seen people making the argument that people would we took Tiana
and cast a white princess - a white person to play Tiana, and
yeah we would be mad because the entire story revolves around
her being African American and that culture and being in New Orleans and there was historical stuff put in there.
She's not a mermaid.
Mermaids -- they can look like whatever we want them to look like.
So you know what, if there was actually a realistic mermaid,
she probably wouldn't look like a human.
She'd look like some blue, glow-in-the-dark scary sea creature with like
three eyes and one of those little glowy things that sticks out of her head
So if we wanna go that route, we can go that route, too.
And I know for all our natural redheads out there,
some people were hoping that you might get a natural redhead to have her, her moment
because there actually are very few natural redheads in the world.
I saw a tweet that I just wanted to share with you because I thought it was really sweet.
@msmorganjarret "As a white-skinned redhead, I have very strong feelings about #TheLittleMermaid."
"Ariel changed my ginger world. The mean "jokes" ended. I became envied for my hair.""
"And you know what? I want little black girl to experience that same feeling with new Ariel."
And I just think that is absolutely the sweetest thing ever, and I completely agree.
I can't personally understand what they feel like to feel underrepresented
because I'm a white girl that looks like 90% of the Disney Princesses.
But I can see as princess party company owner
that the minority girls don't get to go out nearly as much as the white girls
and I feel sad for them, and I feel sad that they don't get to go out as much
because they're so incredibly talented.
For black girls, the only black princess is Tiana
and frankly, she is a frog for 90% of the movie.
One of our performers was coming in as "The Snow Queen," which is kind of like a generic version of Elsa
and Frozen was -- still is -- all the rage
and I remember this one, this little Indian girl, and
she came up to Elsa and she stopped her and said,
"Elsa, I wish I looked like you so that I could be beautiful."
And she was like, "No, no! You ARE beautiful!"
You don't under-- We don't understand especially to little kids
how much these princesses are their heroes,
and to have a popular princess that does look like you, what a difference that makes to them.
So hopefully, hopefully you're excited about it.
If not, I don't think that everybody who's not excited about it is racist.
I definitely think there are people out there who aren't excited about it because they are racist, but
I don't think every reason out there for people not to be excited is because they are, so
I don't want people to throw around hate at people
who aren't excited because some people do get really emotionally tied to
things that are especially very nostalgic for them.
People love the, the version of Cinderella with Brandy in it.
And so if you're considering well maybe as a Disney fan you don't know how you feel about it yet,
how do you feel about that movie?
I think most people love that movie.
Regardless of your reason, of anybody's rationale
for whether they're happy about it or sad about it
I think we can all agree that we should just be spreading nice things, especially towards Halle.
She must be so excited!
I can't imagine how happy she must be to get to portray such a beloved princess.
That - that's amazing!
And we should be helping her celebrate this and not trying to rain on anybody's parade
That's not cool.
We need to be rainbows on each other's parades instead. [laughs]
She should get to celebrate this moment
and not have to deal with all the wannabe casting directors on the Internet.
Let's just be glad it wasn't Lindsay Lohan.
That would've been a trainwreck [laughs]
I can't even imagine. I can't.
That ship has sailed.
Many DUIs ago [laughs]
So, that's just my commentary on this
I'm really curious to hear your commentary on it, too.
Let's try and keep it friendly, folks. We can have disagreements;
let's just be respectful of everybody's perspectives in the comments.
I'm excited to hear what you guys have to say below. I'll be chiming in and let's have a...
productive discussion about it.
I'm so excited!
They're starting production as early as January of this upcoming year, so 2020
and that's going to be a very exciting time
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Thank you guys so much for watching. I'll see you in the comments, and I'll see you next time.
I'm excited. I'm really excited!
I'm gonna look at my little notes here.
This is not them.
Has it really [hiccup]
[laughs]
[hiccups]
Let's see. Someone posted it the other [hiccup]
I have the hic-- [hiccups]
Look, look! I've got Traci's shirt on.
Adorkable merch plug. Adorkable merch plug!