Halle Bailey has explained the importance of keeping her natural hair for her role in The Little Mermaid.
The 22-year-old singer and actress has dominated headlines ever since it was first announced that she would take on the iconic role of Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid live-action remake.
At the time, the announcement was met with both immense praise and backlash, especially from those who couldn't come to grips with the fact that Ariel - a fictional mermaid who was depicted as white in the original 1989 animated version - will now be Black.
Following the uproar, Bailey defended herself against her critics, revealing that she wasn't surprised by the comments being made about her casting during a Q&A video on her YouTube channel. "As a Black person, you just expect it and it's not really a shock anymore. I want the little girl in me and the little girls just like me who are watching to know that they're special and that they should be a princess in every single way," Bailey said.
"There's no reason that they shouldn't be. That reassurance was something that I needed," she added.
Despite the unnecessary backlash, the movie has been praised by viewers, with writer Gillian Blum being so impressed with the flick that she called it the "best Disney live-action adaptation" and encouraged people to watch it when it finally hits cinemas.
"#TheLittleMermaid is the best Disney live-action adaptation to date. Halle Bailey IS Ariel. Major props to the sound effects team. Good changes, though one new song with too much autotune. Could watch this version's Under the Sea all day, it was the highlight of the whole thing," she wrote on Twitter.
Fans also noticed that Bailey was sporting her natural hair in red dreadlocks for the role of Ariel, something she recently explained was vital for her to do for a multitude of reasons.
The actress spoke about the importance of her hair to Ebony Magazine - a publication centered around news, culture, and entertainment relating to the African-American community.
"It was super important for me to have my natural hair in this film. I was really grateful to [director] Rob Marshall, because he wanted to keep my locs. It's always important to have somebody to cosign. I've had my locs since I was five, so they're a huge part of who I am. We need to be able to see ourselves," she said, adding: "We need to be able to see our hair on big screens like this, so that we know that it's beautiful and more than acceptable."
Bailey also previously spoke to Glamour about how the movie's hairstylist Camille Friend and makeup artist Kat Ali - both women of color - worked together to ensure that Bailey felt comfortable on set, saying: "[Ariel still] has red hair, because that's a very iconic part of her, but I really did admire the fact that because I'm a Black woman and I have locs, [the producers] wanted to incorporate that into Ariel's look.
"[Camille and Kat are] both women of color, so I felt very comfortable. They know how to take care of me and my hair and makeup. I've been on sets before where that's not the case," Bailey revealed.
The Little Mermaid is set for release on the big screen this Friday (May 26).
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