LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: As ‘The Little Mermaid’ is approaching its release on May 26, there must be very few cinema lovers who don’t know the music sensation Halle Bailey is essaying the role of the beloved Disney princess Ariel/The Little Mermaid. However, once in a bizarre turn of events, a fan confused Bond girl Halle Berry to be the actress portraying Ariel. What is more bizarre? The fan’s post even elicited a comment from Halle Berry herself!
When the official teaser-trailer of ‘The Little Mermaid’ was launched back in September 2022, an irate Twitter user took to the social media platform to vent out their frustration on the casting of the live action remake of the 1989 classic ‘The Little Mermaid’. The netizen, whose account has since been private, confused Halle Berry to be playing Ariel instead of Halle Bailey.
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Sharing two screenshots, the exasperated user wrote, “Halle Berry is nearly 60 playing the role of a 16-year-old girl. This is what happens when you upset a fandom,” as per the Independent. One of the two screenshots showed the statistics of the teaser-trailer that was viewed more than 2 million times and the number of dislikes increasing the number of likes. The other one showed the biographic information of Ariel from a fandom website.
‘The Bruised’ star’s reply was equally hilarious as she didn’t write a word initially, but posted a meme from the 2007 show ‘Charm School’, featuring Mo’Nique and two other women giving a bewildered look while sitting. Later, as another fan commented, “Can’t wait to see you under da sea!” Berry quipped back, “Wrong Halle lol. I can’t wait to see her too though!”
'I adore you'
Since then, the ‘Catwoman’ star has never shied away from extending her support to Bailey. Bailey has also been vocal about her admiration for the ‘Die Another Day’ actress. In fact during her appearance on ‘Live! With Kelly and Mark’, on being prompted by the host, she shared the story of how she got her name. Bailey shared how her family absolutely loves Berry, “Well, my family, we’ve always loved Halle Berry. I mean she’s amazing,” before elaborating about her naming, “And originally when I was a baby they wanted to name me Hailey, but my last name is Bailey, so that wouldn’t have worked. So they ultimately decided on Halle, and it’s very similar to Halle Berry, but there’s no one else I’d rather have a similar name to than her.”
Berry also took to her social media to acknowledge her namesake’s admiration by saying, “And I’m JUST as honored to share a name with the very talented and super sweet @HalleBailey!! ? I adore you and I cannot wait to see what I already know is an incredible performance in @Disney’s The Little Mermaid.”
To which, ‘The Kids Are Alright’ crooner even replied while retweeting, “Love you so much you’re such an inspiration to me !!”
'Halles get it DONE'
In 2019, when the casting was announced for the first time, many fans got confused with two actresses’ names. One fan wrote on Twitter, “I can’t be the only person who saw news that ‘Halle Bailey is “The Little Mermaid”’ and got very confused because my mind misspelled her last name to make it read ‘Halle Berry is The Little Mermaid,”’ right?”
Berry, who is very vocal about her love for the Twitter family, shared on the social media, “In case you needed a reminder… Halles get it DONE. Congratulations @chloexhalle on this amazing opportunity, we can’t wait to see what you do!”
Recalling her Oscars moment with Berry, Bailey said in her appearance at ‘Live!’, by saying, “She was so kind to me. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love you!’” and added, “She’s been always really supportive to me over social media, so we’ve had a few inbox interactions, but that was my first time meeting her. And she’s like, an angel,” as per CNN.
