Rachel Zegler has shown that if you take on one Disney princess, you take them all, as she responded to criticism of Halle Bailey’s Ariel casting.
Disney sisters stick together, and it’s proven once again when Rachel Zegler responded directly to a critic of Halle Bailey‘s Little Mermaid to pour. Since the arrival of the first trailer footage of Bailey’s Ariel from Disney’s upcoming live-action movie, there has been a renewed wave of online backlash against Bailey’s choice, but that’s something Rachel Zegler didn’t want to let go.
Zegler will appear in another live-action Disney remake as Snow White, and she herself is at the end of her fair share of troll commentary because of that casting. However, when a certain user on Twitter chose to support her Snow White, but joined the #NotMyAriel hashtag and said Bailey “could be the little mermaid on Broadway if she wants to, but not in a movie,” she said. Zegler respond with a short and to the point message. She said:
“If you don’t support my girl Halle, who is the perfect Ariel, you support none of us.”
While it would have been easy for Zegler to take the compliment in silence and stay out of the conversation, it seems she’s not doing it for herself and would much rather take the stance of all for one and one for all. Given the pressure young actresses have taken on anyway to take on such iconic roles, adding constant derogatory comments on social media could make Zegler and Bailey want to hide, but thankfully their clear support for it seems. each other helping them beat back their haters.
Halle Bailey got emotional when she saw black children react to the trailer of the little mermaid
When they star in a Disney movie, actors and actresses have the ability to inspire an entire generation. By becoming Ariel, Halle Baily has seen a huge response from young, black girls who have viewed the images of her as the titular mermaid exactly the way she’d hoped. In previous interviews, Bailey has made it clear that she plans to take on the role, saying:
“I want the little girl in me and the little girls like me watching them to know that they are special and that they should be a princess in every way. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be. That reassurance was something it was inspiring and beautiful to hear their words of encouragement saying to me, ‘You don’t understand what this is doing for us, for our community, for all the little black and brown girls who are going to see themselves in you’. What that would have done for me, how that would have changed my confidence, my belief in myself, everything. Things that seem so small to everyone are so big to us.”
The little Mermaid is still a ways away from revealing the full trailer, with the film not set to hit theaters until May 26, 2023, but there are plenty of people eager to see more character reveals when it finally arrives.