It’s fair to say the backlash for The Little Mermaid has been a bit absurd. But the director of the live-action Disney remake Rob Marshall wasn’t fully prepared to see his casting cause such a stir.
Looking at the drama with Entertainment Weekly, Marshall gets candid about his naivety. “I wasn’t anticipating that because, in a way, I felt like we’ve moved so far past that kind of thing,” says the filmmaker, “but then you realize, in a way, we haven’t. It was very moving to me to see how important this kind of casting is for the world.”
He pushes that the hiring was based on the passion and voice of the young Halle Bailey and that there was “no agenda… We just were looking for the best actor for the role, period. The end. 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,” says Marshall.
In the interview with EW, Marshall says his new take on Ariel is based on wanting a modern woman filled with passion. “No. 1 is her passion — that fire is very important,” he explains. “She feels displaced, and it’s really an epic story of finding your true self. But also, there needs to be a great deal of joy. It’s a strange combination of innocence and wisdom and a great deal of soul and heart. She’s very modern in that way.”
Marshall also addressed the long-standing criticism that The Little Mermaid‘s whole plot is dated in general. “The character goes back to Hans Christian Andersen from another century, but at the same time, even in 1989, it felt in some ways like a very modern woman, someone who sees her life differently than anyone around her and goes to find that dream,” says the filmmaker.
SEE ALSO: Halle Bailey stuns in teaser trailer for Disney’s The Little Mermaid
To flesh out more of that modern approach, Marshall says the new songs included in the film will help round out Ariel. He says, “I won’t share what those are right now, but you’ll get a sense of what she’s feeling.”
The Little Mermaid is being directed by Rob Marshall (Mary Poppins Returns) from a script by David Magee (Finding Neverland) and will star Halle Bailey (Grown-ish) as Ariel, Jonah Hauer-King (Little Women) as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) as Ursula, Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians) as Scuttle, Jacob Tremblay (The Predator) as Flounder, Daveed Diggs (Blindspotting) as Sebastian and Javier Bardem (Everybody Knows) as King Triton.
The Little Mermaid is set for release on May 26th, 2023.
