The Little Mermaid's Melissa McCarthy Never Set Foot On The Ground When Filming
Despite the popular talking point that actors tend to have it easy, film sets can be punishing environments to try and make a living. Time and budget constraints oftentimes turn each and every take into a pressure-packed race against the clock. Tempers can run high as delays, complications, last-minute rewrites, and other unforeseen problems crop up out of nowhere. And that's not even touching on workdays that can stretch up to 18 hours (or more!) depending on the production.
But other times, actors might just find themselves putting their feet up — quite literally — for the length of an entire shoot.
Disney's experiment with live-action remakes of beloved animated classics just keeps trucking along, typically earning $1 billion at the box office despite all the kvetching by us cynics online that these movies are ruining the entire art form. The next one on the agenda is "The Little Mermaid," starring Halle Bailey as the eponymous mermaid Ariel and Melissa McCarthy as the villainous octopus Ursula. As much as the focus on these films is usually on the copious use of visual effects and otherworldly environments that these characters inhabit, McCarthy ended up needing a mix of CGI and practical effects to bring her monstrous cephalopod to life.
One interesting by-product of that, interestingly enough, comes courtesy of a recent "The Little Mermaid" press conference attended by /Film's Jenna Busch. As it turns out, the "Bridesmaids" actor made it through the entire shoot without ever needing to put her feet on the ground ... while on-camera, of course. Here's how.
It's all rigged!
Major blockbusters in recent years like "Aquaman" and the "Avatar" sequels have had to develop clever workarounds in order to film scenes set underwater. While the madman artist known as James Cameron never even hesitated to actually dunk cameras and actors into massive water tanks in order to get the desired effect, others have had to resort to other means of movie magic — namely, practical rigs and wire work to simulate the weightlessness of water. "The Little Mermaid" was no different, according to Melissa McCarthy. At one point in the press conference, the actor revealed the fun tidbit that all of her scenes required her to be dangled in the air in various poses as the villainous Ursula:
"No, there's no [...] I slid down the clamshell occasionally on my back [laughs]. But I was never literally on my feet, we were either up in rigs or there were all different magical things. [...] If you were diving, it was one rig. If you were spinning, it was another.
"But no, never on the ground. And this amazing team of dancers and stunt people that just kind of were our fins or feet, however you want to say. So each person had its team, this wonderful, glorious ensemble."
Talk about a team effort to bring a live-action octopus to life. One has to imagine that Halle Bailey's experience was very similar, at least when under the sea. Acting is a dream job for many, but doubly so when a particular role never requires you to put in long hours on your feet. The key, naturally, is to simply swap out your legs for fins. Easy as that!
"The Little Mermaid" comes to theaters on May 26, 2023.