{"id":26807,"date":"2019-07-10T13:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T19:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b1055798"},"modified":"2019-07-10T13:12:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T19:12:00","slug":"donald-glover-defends-halle-bailey-amid-the-little-mermaid-casting-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/music-news\/donald-glover-defends-halle-bailey-amid-the-little-mermaid-casting-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Glover Defends Halle Bailey Amid The Little Mermaid Casting Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Donald Glover<\/a><\/strong> is rallying behind Halle Bailey<\/strong> amid criticism over her casting in Disney’s upcoming The Little Mermaid<\/em> live-action reboot.<\/p>\n

Last week, debates were sparked online after it was announced that the singer of R&B duo Chloe x Halle<\/strong>, a black woman, will play Ariel<\/a>. Critics maintain that the character should be white and red-headed like the 1989 animated character. Others accuse naysayers of simply being racist.<\/p>\n

Donald weighed in on Halle’s casting in The Little Mermaid<\/em> in an interview with E! News’ Zuri Hall<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“I thought that was so special,” the actor said on Tuesday at the premiere of Disney’s live-action reboot of The Lion King<\/em>, in which he portrays adult Simba. “We were just watching that film and I’m like, that’s such a great story but I’m just like, I dunno, I just hope that she’s like having fun and don’t let anybody make you feel the opposite of how you want to feel. It’s a very special role and you earned it, so I hope you’re listening.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Halle, 19, also attended the Lion King <\/em>premiere, although she was not spotted with Donald. She attended the event with her band mate and sister Chloe Bailey<\/strong>, 21. Halle posed for a photo with Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger<\/strong> at the premiere.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Donald<\/p>\n

ROBYN BECK\/AFP\/Getty Images\/Jordan Strauss\/Invision\/AP\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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While Disney has not commented directly on the criticism over the Little Mermaid<\/em> casting, on Saturday, an “open letter to the Poor, Unfortunate Souls” was posted on the Instagram<\/a> account of the company’s cable network Freeform<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The character of Ariel is a work of fiction,” the post read. “So after all this is said and done, and you still cannot get past the idea that choosing the incredible, sensational, highly-talented, gorgeous Halle Bailey is anything other than the INSPIRED casting that it is because she ‘doesn’t look like the cartoon one,’ oh boy, do I have some news for you…about you.”<\/p>\n

Last month, E! News confirmed that Melissa McCarthy<\/a><\/strong> was in early talks<\/a> to play Ursula the sea witch in the new The Little Mermaid<\/em> film. In addition, Jacob Tremblay<\/strong> and Awkwafina<\/a><\/strong> are being eyed for the roles of Flounder and Scuttle. A release date for the new movie has not been announced.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Glover is rallying behind Halle Bailey amid criticism over her casting in Disney’s upcoming The Little Mermaid live-action reboot. Last week, debates were sparked online after it was announced that the singer of R&B duo Chloe x Halle, a black woman, will play Ariel. Critics maintain that the character should be white and red-headed like the 1989 animated character. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-13 14:34:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}