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Halle Bailey On The Revolutionary Act Of Wearing Her Locs As Ariel
Corey Nickols/Getty Images for IMDb

Halle Bailey On The Revolutionary Act Of Wearing Her Locs As Ariel

"That was really special to me."

Celebrity News
xoStaff
Sep. 23, 2022 08:00AM EST
Celebrity News

When the trailer for The Little Mermaid dropped, everyone finally got to see Halle Bailey as Ariel. Black women and girls raved over the singer/ actress’s beauty as the beloved character while she belted out the Disney classic song “Part of Your World.” And one of the most noticeable things that many fans pointed out was that the character’s red hair was made of locs.

Halle, who makes up one-half of the Grammy-nominated group Chloe x Halle, is known for sporting locs and has had them since prior to fame. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Halle shared that it was the director Rob Marshall’s idea to integrate some of her characteristics, such as her locs, into the character.

​"With Rob, he's so amazing and just saying, 'I see you and I want to bring you into the character,'" she said. "So it was a beautiful thing. My hair, for example — incorporating my locs into the red hair was something that was really special to me. The outfit, the fins, everything. It's just amazing. I'm just grateful that I've been able to take the essence of me and mix the two."

Rob first teased the news that Halle’s hair will still be in locs as Ariel in an August 2022 Varietyinterview. “She looks stunning in red hair; not everybody does,” he said.

And many fans of the “Forgive Me” singer can agree. When the trailer dropped, there was an influx of reactions. While she has unfortunately received backlash for being cast as Ariel due to the color of her skin, there was also a lot of praise and support sent her way.

Tina Knowles Lawson shared an Instagram post with Halle and wrote a loving caption to the singer.

“I remember talking about her role as Ariel to the beautiful And Super talented @hallebailey on my show " Talks with Mama Tina,”" Tina wrote. “She and her beautiful sister @chloebailey .She spoke about the pressure of filling the shoes of past Little Mermaids Roles. Well we could not be more excited or proud of you as Ariel. You are changing our little black girls perspective on them being not limited to certain spaces and to be seen!!!! Kudos beautifulHalle.❤️❤️❤️

Legendary actress Halle Berry tweeted that she couldn’t wait to watch it.

And Chlöe showered her little sister with love in a series of tweets.

“MY BABYYYYY AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” followed by 11 mermaid emojis.

In the next tweet, she shared that she was “gonna cry” and lastly wrote “that’s my mfn sister. YUP.”

The Little Mermaid - Official Teaser Trailer

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Featured image by Corey Nickols/Getty Images for IMDb