In recent years, Disney has gotten into making live-action remakes of some of their classic animated movies. One such film is the upcoming The Little Mermaid, which has a cast that includes Daveed Diggs and Halle Bailey. The film could have had even more musical firepower than that: While Melissa McCarthy ultimately landed the role of Ursula, Lizzo auditioned for the part but did not get it. Lizzo discussed that in a new Variety interview, sharing her vision for the character.
She said, “Everyone knows I auditioned for Ursula in The Little Mermaid and I didn’t get it. But you know, I’m fine as hell. That has nothing to do with Ursula, but I was down to make Ursula a THOT, shaking ass.”
Lizzo also noted that she actually spoke with McCarthy about the movie, saying:
“You know what’s crazy? At the Adele show, I ran into Melissa McCarthy, because she [got cast as] Ursula. She was like, ‘Hi, I’m Melissa.’ And I was like, ‘Hi, I’m Melissa. And I also auditioned for Ursula.’ And she was like, ‘Well, why the hell did I get the part,’ which is a classic Melissa McCarthy thing to say. And then I was like, ‘Girl, because my audition was terrible.’ And I say that as Tyler Perry walks by. And I was like — ruined my chances there. And then she goes, ‘This is my daughter Vivian.’ And I’m like, ‘Get out of here, because my name is Melissa Viviane.’ We were looking at each other like, ‘What the hell is going on?’”
She then clarified her audition actually wasn’t bad at all, saying, “My audition wasn’t terrible. Sometimes I like to make jokes. My audition was good. You can ask Disney. I don’t want to talk too much about it. The singing was great. I’ll just say that.”
Check out the full interview here.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.