The latest trailer for The Little Mermaid has over one million downvotes on YouTube. Compare that to other live-action remakes, like The Lion King (45,000) and Beauty and the Beast (10,000), and something is, ahem, fishy.
Josh Gad took to Twitter to criticize the racist and “pathetic” trolls who are mass disliking The Little Mermaid, which stars Halle Bailey as Ariel. “Imagine being so broken and pathetic in life that your chief concern is the skin color of… a make-believe singing mermaid,” the frequent Disney actor wrote in response to a Call to Activism tweet about “the controversy surrounding Halle Bailey’s casting” and how he important thing is “that we remember a beautiful and talented actress won the role. We can’t allow racism to ever be normalized.”
Imagine being so broken and pathetic in life that your chief concern is the skin color of… a make-believe singing mermaid. https://t.co/7F6F8LT2b9
— Josh Gad (@joshgad) March 16, 2023
“I definitely think that because I love this movie so much, and I’ve treasured it since I was a little girl, I did put a bit of pressure on myself,” Bailey said about playing the gadgets and gizmos-loving mermaid. “Just because I want to deliver all of the feels that I saw when I was a little girl… Knowing that gave it my all and gave 110 percent into everything of this film, I am really proud of myself.”
The Little Mermaid comes out on May 26th.