‘Little Mermaid’ star has a ‘complicated’ view of the undersea witch, who endures isolation and banishment by her family.
Melissa McCarthy knew she had big tentacles to fill portraying villainous Ursula for the live-action “The Little Mermaid.”
McCarthy fell hard for the outrageously coiffed, half-octopus sea witch of the 1989 Disney animated original while working as a nanny for two VHS-obsessed children.
“I’ve seen ‘The Little Mermaid’ more than any other movie, hundreds of times. We literally watched it every night,” says McCarthy, 52. “I’ve always thought Ursula was the dishiest, most incredible part.”
Playing the dream role in the remake (now in theaters) alongside Halle Bailey’s mermaid Ariel proved doubly challenging for two-time Oscar nominee McCarthy — not only pulling off a convincingly conniving performance featuring Ursula’s big song, “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” but inevitably inviting comparisons to her beloved original animated Ursula, voiced by Pat Carroll.
“My hope was to give all the love I have for Pat Carroll’s original,” says McCarthy. “And then put my own spin on it.”
Casting Ursula — who tricks Ariel into giving up her golden voice for human legs and feet to pursue her true love, Prince Eric — proved to be one of the hottest casting stories in Hollywood. Even Lizzo threw her blond Ursula wig in the ring in 2018, dressing in a full ensemble and belting “Poor Unfortunate Souls” in a social media video.
McCarthy implored director Rob Marshall in what she was sure was a futile effort.
“I told him, ‘I’m probably not even on the bottom of your list. But I would love to talk to you about it, please, because I feel this Ursula connection,’ “ says McCarthy.
Over lunch, Marshall told McCarthy he was already aware of her singing chops from Barbra Streisand’s 2016 album “Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway,” which features the unlikely duo singing “Anything You Can Do.
