인어 공주 director Rob Marshall says the production was searching for someone who could exude “a great deal of fire and joy” when they cast 할리 베일리 as Ariel.

“We just were looking for the best actor for the role, 기간. 끝,” Marshall, 62, 말했다 엔터테인먼트 위클리 of casting Bailey, 22, emphasizing that the team had “no agenda” in the process. “We saw everybody and every ethnicity.”

Marshall said the casting team’s goal was to find someone who could be “incredibly strong, 열렬한, 아름다운, 똑똑한, 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.

인터뷰의 다른 곳, 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 9월에.

“I wasn’t anticipating that because, 어떤 면에서, I felt like we’ve moved so far past that kind of thing,” the director told 하나 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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9월, 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, 제 생각에는, just young-minded and a bit more not sure of myself so much,” 그녀가 말했다. “The whole experience of filming, in more ways than one, mirrored Ariel’s journey of finding herself and her voice.”

이벤트에서, 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,” 그녀는 덧붙였다. “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” 그리고 “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, 우와, 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.”

인어 공주 is in theaters May 26.