Berlin (AP) – Director Rob Marshall has explained why actress Halle Bailey is the best cast for his remake of “Arielle”. “There would have been no one who could have played them better,” Marshall told the German Press Agency in Berlin. The role is very challenging. You had to find someone who could sing incredibly well. The voice must be unearthly and very special.
In addition, she must be strong-willed and passionate, but also like from another world. It needs an innocence and a vulnerability. You saw hundreds of women, but Halle was the one who had it all. “When she came to us, read and sang for us, she set the bar so high that no one could top it.”
The fact that a black woman was cast as Arielle caused different reactions on Twitter, for example. Many people were happy about it and saw themselves represented, others opposed the cast, pointing to the old Disney cartoon where Ariel had white skin and red hair.
Marshall wonders about the debate. 25 years ago he worked on a television musical in which Cinderella was played by a young black girl named Brandy. “I remember Whitney Houston was the fairy godmother and Whoopi Goldberg was the queen,” Marshall said. The fact that this is still news today seems like something from another century.
That’s exactly what the film is about
“But unfortunately we’re still in a situation where some people are struggling with that,” Marshall said. “The irony of it all is that this is what our film is all about: not being afraid of someone who is different from yourself. I hope this film will inspire on many levels – because of the message of the film, but also because of the cast.”
The film “Arielle, the Mermaid” comes to the cinema on Thursday. They were concerned with finding the best cast, Marshall said. There was no agenda to explicitly cast a “woman of color”. “It seems a bit dated that we’re even discussing this in 2023, you know?” But he also found that it was important after all – when he saw that black girls and boys found themselves in it.
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2023-05-22 06:36:09
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