‘The Little Mermaid’ Cast on Pep Talks with Beyoncé, Halle’s Voice, and the Power of Representation

wish I could be heart of that world [Music] hello everyone my name is Jacqueline Coley and I'd like to welcome you all to the first interview with the cast from Disney's The Little Mermaid hello everyone hello uh Hallie I have to start with you because you are playing a singing Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid joined by an All-Star cast of Emmy Tony Oscar winners Grammy winners directed by Rob Marshall tell me what it was like when he called you and told you that that dream was coming true oh my goodness well first of all I'm just so grateful to be in the midst of these wonderful human beings who during the filming process was just amazing people to be around it's a really a dream come true Rob Marshall is the best when he called me I didn't believe it he was like Ariel this is how he told me because of course when I answered the phone he goes is this Ariel am I speaking to Ariel and I'm like what so what's weird is he said that to me did you see of course [Applause] [Laughter] but it was amazing yeah so it's just weird the whole thing is weird and amazing and yeah I I would see him actually doing that as well because that is I've interviewed him for Mary Poppins and other things I mean this is the guy that did Chicago this is Rob Marshall he literally dances everything and Melissa I do have to feel when you join the cast it was probably Kindred Spirits because I feel like everything Rob does is theatrical but I do have to feel it was also emotional like I as she was talking I was listening to Holly tear up and I was thinking she just does that I heard just her singing voice like you had you oh my god and I really had to it was the first day and the first time that you were just kind of marking the spot Rob was like we just will you just sit and sing a little bit of it so Melissa no one knows when it comes on and then I started crying day one so I'm like I'm cool I cry a lot when people think but it did and then they once they played it like her recorded one through the thing we were all crying and I thought this is going to be difficult to get through it's just it really is it there's something so beautiful about it and you've made it so your own and it was every moment of of that in the in the Rob Marshall magical world is uh pretty dreamy I mean it really is looking at this cast like I'm just happy to be here like filling out this loveliness on here I can't imagine what it's going to look like to see you guys in this new technology but Aquafina have to ask you um I feel like this was like a fan campaign that came to life like legit like you really wanted something by me yeah I don't know I mean like you know but legitimately I know that you've made it very well known how you feel about Scuttle and you were very very vocal about that early on but yeah talk about about this because again I don't think that was to that joke um the first thought that most people would have but I now I can't see anybody else oh okay I take that as a truly take that as a compliment yeah you made it your own yeah I'm saying you've made it your own yeah and I think there's something that that obviously like about Scuttle that I really identify with love Scuttle and and to be a part of like this cast as Scuttle is is um yes it's very it's very intense was he your favorite character at this movie we read that he was like like literally like childhood like from the first thing because most girls are going for Ariel so again no I'm going for Scuttle like I don't know but as I'm watching a little mermaid growing up I I'm like Scuttle is as everything um yeah the uh definitely was one of my favorite characters I loved buddy hackett's performance in the original so when when you know we got that call and we got the aerial you know it was like it was like uh like I really couldn't believe I want you to just keep redoing bunny Hackett rules but you can do it I will have to say both with you Aquafina I think everyone's kind of part of the Disney family but again it seems like they're they're giving y'all Extra Innings very quickly between shangchi and then also with Seoul like you're you're doing the Pixar moving on to this but in this one you also bring some Hamilton connections as well because you get to play Sebastian with the man who named his kid after the character that's probably a nice little Hamilton reunion I mean working with Lynn is always the best because there's like a really solid shorthand right now you know like he'll bring a song and be like you do the thing where yeah and then it's like yes so then I'm gonna all right let's do it um because it's been a lot of years now of making silly rap songs together so that's kind of the a little more than silly you know just winning what have you guys done together it opened in New York yeah but Holly there's some incredible collaborators with this entire sort of thing I mean we have Alan Menke returning to do the score and then add more and all bringing Lynn with it obviously Rob Marshall but just the reality of how you guys are doing this is something that they haven't really talked about either so can you at least like take us into the part of your world a little bit like how was this adaptation done like was it all voice like how did you sort of blend the two yeah well musically because I'm a musician first so Alan Menken being in the midst of him and just this beautiful score of this film was like just amazing for me getting to sing these songs that we've all known since I was you know little is crazy and then just kind of getting to make Ariel mine in a way is really a beautiful thing I was stunned that they were able to take me half of me and the rest CGI and like show the real mean who I am and weaving into this kind of just fantasy world of just Beauty and adventure and it was interesting when filming because half of the time I mean Aquafina and David they did their uh voice recordings uh before I did my filming so when I heard yes when I was acting yeah I would be acting with the puppet so it would be me on a blue screen on this huge stage by myself a whole big camera crew and I would hear them in my ears but like the little puppeteers would be acting with me and so your voices became so comforting to me because you're my only friends I was begging Rob to come back man I want to just stand behind the puppy let me just be yeah because I wanted to watch you work some more yeah it was a really beautiful experience but it was cool because they became like my home in my ears and then when Melissa came I was like oh my God thank God it's a person well Melissa I do have to say too talking about Rob Marshall I mean he's an award-winning Corey choreographer and so much of what Ursula does is movement I mean talk about him I mean Also let's be honest everybody wants to sing you're a big villain number I mean and to get that sort of like I think both vocal performance with the choreography and it didn't mean he didn't make you do it as you were performing it on live I know yeah sure and that I mean it's my my fantasy world in my head I'm a singer and a dancer and I love I love being around dancers I love that whole world so much and so just getting to pretend and immerse myself in that it's just so funny because Dancers just dance like when they're talking to you they're like you know the thing when you do the thing and everybody watching as I'm doing it dancers can't not Mark your moves so I'm looking out and John's doing the move and Rob's doing the moves and sometimes John just throws himself down on the ground he said can you do a roll like this and I'm like he's just rolling around him again it's fantastic and to be able to do that song and it's like the like the broad that lives inside of me I was like she she she's Ursula oh like getting to to be her was just like it was delicious you definitely like get to live in your aunt main realness for it like that is like so great but the orchestra you also have the live Orchestra both of you like that I think adds a completely different depth to it so talk about that part of it if you can well this is her I mean not can you imagine if I only make like bad puns this is her world I meant that literally that's a pun but uh I you know this is such a new territory and I was back in this tiny room and nobody could see me in the orchestra was was out and they were so impressive it's just wild to watch that many beautiful musicians just like do their thing and Rob came and got me and he was like I want you to come sing with the orchestra I want you to stand in the room and feel what that feels like and I was like oh we're gonna know you're gonna know and I shouldn't do that and I don't want to disrupt them and he's like if you you may never feel it again you have to experience ones and it it really was it was one of the most magical things I've ever gotten to do and he was he was right as he always is that like the feeling of those instruments and being in that room I was just like this is something I'll I will cherish forever yeah meanwhile David and I in the booth that came for uh well yeah I want to give you this because as we talk about the music I don't want you to feel left out with Scuttle because he does have a musical moment I think hopefully if we get to see that sort of Revisited but these guys have like Show Stoppers so I want to ask you this though what's your Disney show stopper like because I do feel like from now on at any time you go to a karaoke bar they're gonna hand each one of you the night to kind of like do the thing so like Aquafina want to give you your hand the mic moment okay okay my Disney show stopper yes like okay all right this is your Disney song okay okay okay karaoke style Part of Your World does definitely is a banger let's be honest um and and then I also I really like um The Colors Of The Wind yeah okay besides the one that you have if you could pick another to be like Disney show stuff like a go-to karaoke song for you again you're going to be singing yours a lot so I'll give you like an alternate to beat if you want one I don't you know I'm not really qualified to hit many of the showstoppers I don't think but I'm a big fan of like the like everybody wants to be a cat like I like I like all the you know apocryphal Disney movies so Aristocats is actually my favorite yes make sure I give you both the opportunity before I I'm hoping that this last part doesn't make us cry too much and I want to get some Giggles in first yeah remember grandma [Laughter] I know I'm trying I'm basically trying to Hype myself up so I don't start crying because I'm gonna talk about Beyonce and that's emotional moment so what's your Disney song though if it wasn't Poor Unfortunate Souls um I would if I could I would love to do a dead-on thing of Snow White when she's like yeah again I'm gonna go I kind of teased it a bit because you now joined the Disney Princess Pantheon and there's some very illustrious people get to join you get to join people like Anika Noni Rose you get to join people like you know Vanessa Williams sang a song for Disney's Princess but I think all of us when we got to see Beyonce as Nala and The Lion King were like yeah Disney princess too and you actually had the benefit of maybe being able to text someone after you got the part to be like just so you know I'm gonna be Ariel I'm just curious did she give you an advice joining in the in the Disney because she also has experience with this entire process yeah so she is just such an amazing genuine human being and I remember when I first got the role you know she's so proud of me super excited but she's like all about me just taking a stand for myself and speaking up for myself and not being afraid and I'm like I grew up in a big family I'm the baby of the girls so I'm always like shy and a bit timid sometimes it's harder for me to speak up so she's like no you can do this you go in there you be strong and you know she's just wonderful so I love that so much and I do love it we had a great interview with you at d23 where you talked about the fact that you singing a part of your world felt like a healing moment for you like healing your inner child I just want you to expand on that because I thought that was such a powerful way to put it that you wished you'd been able to see this representation back then yeah I mean it's so important because Little Mermaid was my favorite there every time we'd go in the pool We Just Pretend We're mermaids we'd swim and you know when I first saw the script and was going to audition I just thought to myself you know there's no way I'm gonna be cast because the version of me that I have of Ariel is the one that we all have of her when she's younger and um you know her red hair her pale skin I'm like that's Ariel it's not me so getting to take on this new role and kind of make her mind in a way is really special and seeing all of the beautiful black and brown babies reactions just makes me cry and SOB because I feel for my little girl inside and um it just makes me emotional but it's really exciting and um yeah just a blessing I don't know if that answer it but that answers it and it also got the misties going which is exactly see I told you David I definitely want to talk to you specifically about Sebastian because again he's he's the he's the director he gets he gets the Bops in a lot of the ways but I think you said that you know despite the familiarity with Lynn this was the hardest role you've had to do which is saying a lot because you do like a lot of verbal exercises in Hamilton that I would think is really hard I don't know how this would be harder I don't I don't I don't really sing like that but also like there's just a it just there's a and a weight to this role either yeah this little crab carries a lot of weight in my memory you know he's such a he looms so large um and so it's I just I did more work for this than anything like a research guy and I was I have I was in Jamaica and in Trinidad and like talking to calypsonians and like you know like just like really trying to immerse myself in like whoa which island is Sebastian from like what sort of training did he have where did he go to school if he's like you know British educated and came back what does that mean like and how does that affect his voice obviously because we're just doing voices and stuff so but I don't know it was so much fun because um that is a big part we don't like really understand it as a big part of how how human beings like interact like your voice is so integral to who you are yeah and so actually focusing all of my energy just on that not having to worry about okay what is my doing with my hands like uh was was exciting and really fun but then also all of a sudden I was like oh no I've opened this this Pandora's Box like this is an endless an endless rabbit hole and uh yeah so it was it was fun but it was a lot it was a lot of work if you had to choose between uh kiss the girl or or under the sea which one was the one where you worked the hardest between those two songs probably under the sea but only just because like I kept wanting to do it again it's like there's so many the the lyrics in both of those songs are amazing but like the potential options in under this year crazy and then also I had to record under the sea with Haley doing her like improvs along with it which were just like shattering my whole you know why would anyone listen to this I don't know why I just like take the headphones off again your voice is very intimidating we saw the trailer everybody knew right step in the best way possible in the best way possible but there's another presence that we didn't talk about that's not here that is also intimidating Javier I mean I mean I just give me a quick if you can what's it like to call that um daddy and like the way you're smoking respectfully I'm just talking about but um yeah just tell us about that and you can keep it how you want to but we're going to have a different picture no Javier was so amazing I had been a fan of him for so long just like I have of these beautiful souls and literally I did not expect him to be like as kind as he was I expected like a macho man like you know and he is but he's so like a teddy bear inside so it was really amazing getting to know him and just having him be this father figure it was cool because I got to compare him to my you know my real father it's very overprotective and very King triton-like so I just felt like I was playing off of my own experience with my dad kind of scary scenes I will say that I hope I hope folks uh folks can can tune in on that because that yeah yeah that's the other story right quick I happen to be there at the day that Javier was doing his camera test and we had just finished rehearsal and I don't know how y'all's camera tests were but his were him getting full dressed up in his full regalia and then them telling him to hold his breath and just dunking him underwater and I'm like zooming a camera in and out around and I'm sitting there and I'm watching him be like dipped in this tank of water and I'm looking at the screen and the camera's just like slowly panning around his face and I turned around and I was like I would watch this for three and a half this is the most interesting thing I've ever seen in my it was so like amazing just the power in that man's face it was like yeah I know what you mean because before we would start first of all any movie that lets me have Javier as my brother I'm like yeah like let's do more but just watching him and he is he's so he leads with such kindness but watching him there's a reason who he is who he is before we were even going I would find myself being like hey stop staring at him creepy because I was just like it's fascinating yeah he's fascinating what is he thinking he's he just kind of exudes this he's like so Tethered to the Earth but I was doing the same thing where I really had to be like cut it out yeah yeah it's getting weird thank you all very much I want to remind all of you that tickets for Disney's The Little Mermaid are on sale now

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Keywords: halle bailey, awkwafina, melissa mcarthy, daveed diggs, jacob tremblay, fandango, fandango big ticket interview, halle bailey interview, awkwafina interview, melissa mcarthy interview, daveed diggs interview, the little mermaid, the new little mermaid, the little mermaid live action, the little mermaid interview, beyonce, the new little mermaid interview, the little mermaid live action interview, javier bardem, jonah hauer king, simone ashley, rob marshall

Id: fboznMIBgXc

Length: 19min 19sec (1159 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 26 2023