リトル・マーメイド director Rob Marshall says the production was searching for someone who could exude “a great deal of fire and joy” when they cast ハレベイリー as Ariel.

“We just were looking for the best actor for the role, 期間. The end,” マーシャル, 62, 言った エンターテインメントウィークリー of casting Bailey, 22, emphasizing that the team had “no agenda” 過程の中で. “We saw everybody and every ethnicity.”

Marshall said the casting team’s goal was to find someone who could be “incredibly strong, 情熱的, 綺麗な, 頭いい, clever,” and exude “a great deal of fire and joy” in playing the iconic Disney princess.

“That voice is something that is so signature and so ethereal and so beautiful that it captures the heart of Eric, and he looks for her for the entire film,” the director added of the need to cast a high-quality singer for the lead role.

インタビューの他の場所, Marshall noted that he “wasn’t anticipating” the major positive reaction the upcoming film has received after audiences saw a Black actor portray Ariel when Disney debuted a teaser trailer 九月に.

“I wasn’t anticipating that because, ある意味で, I felt like we’ve moved so far past that kind of thing,” the director told それです of the noteworthy onscreen representation. “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.”

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9月中, Bailey told PEOPLE at the D23 Expo about how playing Ariel changed her. “I’d definitely say coming into this film I was a lot more, 私が思うに, just young-minded and a bit more not sure of myself so much,” 彼女は言いました. “The whole experience of filming, in more ways than one, mirrored Ariel’s journey of finding herself and her voice.”

イベントで, Bailey recalled “just sobbing because I truly felt like I had come out of this cocoon with Ariel” at the end of filming the upcoming movie.

“This story has done so much for me and the filming process has really kind of changed my life,” 彼女は付け加えた. “I’d definitely say it mirrored what Ariel goes through in the film.”

The actress added that the film has “changed my perspective on everything” と “impacted my life in so many ways.” And she hopes the representation she now brings to the iconic story will mean just as much to young audiences.

“The fact that now it’s getting to be played by me, a person who looks like me, woman of color, I’m just like, わお, I’m so grateful what it will do for all the other little Black and brown boys and girls who will see themselves in me,” said Bailey. “Because I know if I had seen myself when I was younger, I think my whole perspective would’ve changed.”

リトル・マーメイド 5月に劇場にいます 26.