The Little Mermaid 's Halle Bailey explains why Ariel's iconic hair flip was hard to pull off
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Disney fans know the scene: Ariel, having been transformed from a mermaid into a human by the sea witch Ursula, rushes from the depths of the ocean with her new legs, breaking through to the surface and tossing her hair back in a spray of sparkling droplets.
It's an iconic moment that appears effortless in animation, but Halle Bailey, the recording artist who plays Ariel in this year's live-action/CG version of The Little Mermaid, says recreating it was quite difficult.
"That scene was so fun to do. It was definitely hard, though, because my hair was really, really heavy," the member of R&B duo Chloe x Halle explains to EW. "I have my locs, which are my favorite thing. I've had my locs since I was 5. It's feels like wool when it's wet. So it gets heavier. It kind of almost doubles the weight when they're heavy."
Adding to that weight were curly hair strands interwoven with Bailey's locs for the role. "It was just a lot of hair on my head," Bailey says. "So whenever I would get in the water, it would be heavy. So that one scene, it was really funny: that whole day we were trying to get it right, get it right, and finally they got a take that they really liked."
Giles Keyte/Disney Halle Bailey's Ariel in 'The Little Mermaid'
The Little Mermaid, directed by Oscar nominee Rob Marshall, pulls from both Disney's animated classic and the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Ariel, the youngest daughter of King Triton (Javier Bardem), longs to explore the above world, which is off limits to mer-folk. When she swims to the surface for the first time, she saves Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) from a shipwreck. He becomes consumed with finding his mystery savior, while she strikes a deal with Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) to magically become human.
Bailey considers it a special experience to incorporate her locs into the look of Ariel. Marshall says from the beginning, he and his team, including producers John DeLuca and Marc Platt, wanted to find ways to allow Bailey to make the character her own.
"We found this beautiful way to approach her hair, which was worked from her own locs," the filmmaker, who also made Disney's Mary Poppins Returns, recalls. "We took her beautiful locs and incorporated hair over them. So there's a combination of actual braids and also loose hair. I think it captures the authenticity of what Halle's Ariel is, but also at the same time feels ethereal and otherworldly."
The Little Mermaid, which held its premiere in Hollywood Monday night, hits theaters May 26.
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