Melissa McCarthy Worried One Ursula Scene Would Push The Little Mermaid Past PG
Few Disney villains are as delightfully wicked as Ursula, the sea witch in "The Little Mermaid." That goes for the animated version voiced by Pat Carroll in the 1989 film as well as the less impressive live-action version with Melissa McCarthy. She just loves being evil and milks every second of enjoyment out of her dastardly plan to take Ariel's voice (Halle Bailey) to get back at her brother (in the new version, at least) Titan (Javier Bardem).
McCarthy was born for this role and made it her own, including her big number "Poor Unfortunate Souls," which was a lot to live up to. She did, however, have one issue with a bit of advice she got from director Rob Marshall and producer John DeLuca. So many kids beloved the original film, and this advice/stage direction might have gotten this version of the film pushed out of the PG slot it ended up in, as she recently told Entertainment Weekly.
'You can't throw these things around in the same fashion'
In the EW interview, McCarthy spoke about her big number and one of the dance moves Marshall and DeLuca wanted her to do. It involved a shimmy. McCarthy explained, "John kept saying, lean into it and he kept shaking. He was a [Bob] Fosse dancer, and he kept saying, 'Come down hard when you're coming down. Shake, shake, shake when you do your shimmy,'" with Marshall giving similar advice.
So here's the thing about that. When one has breasts that are not small, they do tend to move, especially when you shimmy. Breast-havers know this. Others ... not so much. McCarthy told the site that she had to show them how her shimmy wasn't the same as when they did it. McCarthy recalled telling Marshall, "When you shake your shoulders really hard, one thing happens. When I shake my shoulders, something else happens ... and he was like, 'What?' And then I showed him and he was like [gasps]."
Yes, good sir, breasts do that when you shake them. McCarthy told EW that she did her best, adding "I think they fixed it in CGI." I personally don't remember noticing any untoward movement in that area while watching the film, so perhaps they did fix it. Of course, any movement — even the exaggerated shimmy-ing — of the breasts shouldn't be offensive in any way. Body parts move. That's how gravity and breasts work, even under the sea.
"The Little Mermaid" is currently in theaters.