Featured Image Credit: Disney
Topics: Disney, Film and TV, Celebrity
Rachel Lang
Halle Bailey has refused to let the trolls and haters get her down in the lead up to the premiere of Disney's long-awaited remake of The Little Mermaid.
Sitting down with Edition, the 22-year-old revealed how she felt when racist trolls targeted the film with a mass campaign to review-bomb the trailers.
"Seeing the world’s reaction to it was definitely a shock," she admitted.
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Review bombing is when trolls - usually homophobic or racist bigots - target a film or TV show in order to tank its online reviews.
Which is precisely what happened to The Little Mermaid. But Bailey had revealed what made it all worthwhile.
"Seeing all the babies’ reactions, all the brown and Black young girls, [it] really tore me up emotionally," she said.
Last year, when the first teaser for the upcoming film was released, heartwarming reactions of young Black girls viewing the trailer for the first time went viral.
In one TikTok video, a little girl named Sienna can hardly contain her excitement once she sees Bailey appear on screen.
A starry-eyed Sienna asked off camera 'That is Ariel? That is her?' while ‘Part of Your World’ softly played in the background.
Heartwarming.
But back to Bailey.
Despite the mass hate against the film, Bailey isn't letting it sink her big moment. "It’s honestly been such a crazy ride, and I genuinely feel shocked and honored and grateful to be in this position," she said.
"A lot of times, I have to pinch myself and be like, is this real life?"
Bailey also revealed Ariel always held a special place in her heart.
"I feel like I learned so much through her," she said.
"I auditioned when I was 18, got the role when I was 19, and I turn 23 this year. So I genuinely feel like [Ariel’s] helped me grow up."
And, although the film has previously been slammed for its innate sexism - girl meets boy, girl gives up everything to build her life around a boy - Bailey reckons the remake focuses more on Ariel finding herself, instead of finding someone else.
"I’m really excited for my version of the film because we’ve definitely changed that perspective of just her wanting to leave the ocean for a boy,” she said.
"It’s way bigger than that. It’s about herself, her purpose, her freedom, her life and what she wants.
"As women we are amazing, we are independent, we are modern, we are everything and above and I’m glad that Disney is updating some of those themes."
Now that is worth going under the sea for.