The Little Mermaid Interview: Melissa McCarthy & Javier Bardem on Landing These Iconic Roles

One of the most exciting elements of Rob Marshall’s live-action remake of Disney classic The Little Mermaid is the ensemble cast playing these unforgettable characters. Alongside the talented Halle Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy plays the wicked sea witch Ursula, with Javier Bardem as her rival and ruler of Atlantica, King Triton. While promoting the movie, Collider’s Steve Weintraub spoke to the duo about how they stepped into these roles, who almost played the lead role of Ariel, and more. Marshall’s The Little Mermaid takes audiences back under the sea in a whole new way, combining stunt work and VFX to recreate Ariel’s underwater world, but it also introduces new characters, like Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina, and brand-new songs like Prince Eric’s (played by Jonah Hauer-King) “Wild Uncharted Waters.” McCarthy tells Weintraub that even in familiar numbers like “Part of Your World,” Bailey’s performance and the writing give all-new meaning to the original, saying, “It's not a whole new numbe