Melissa McCarthy got over herself to sing in ‘Little Mermaid’
Pathetic? Not Melissa McCarthy.
Much has been written about Halle Bailey’s sirenlike vocals as Ariel in Dis- ney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid,” but it shouldn’t drown out McCar- thy’s splashy showing in the upcoming film.
The “Bridesmaids” and “Mike & Molly” star plays the spellbinding villain Ursula and delivers the groundbreaking sea witch’s signature song, “Poor Unfortunate Souls.”
“The Little Mermaid” — and McCarthy’s full number — hits theaters this Friday.
Last Thursday, Disney unveiled a clip of McCar- thy’s breathy rendition of the deal-making dirge, which both manipulates and enables Bailey’s mermaid princess to transform into a human. McCarthy’s Ursula builds on the burlesque style of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s classic, but adds her own sardonic touch. (Ashman also revised the lyrics so that the song wouldn’t make young girls feel as if they couldn’t speak out of turn.)
The comedy star, who has sparingly sung onscreen, debuted her version of “Poor Unfortunate Souls” at CinemaCon in Las Vegas last month, where the twotime Oscar nominee was awarded the convention’s Cinema Véritê Award. She recently told Yahoo that she was apprehensive about taking on the infamous song.
“It was terrifying. Insane,” McCarthy said. “I was like, ‘Why am I doing this? What am I doing?’”
Even though she was really nervous and couldn’t “shake off the nerves,” the star said she still had a good time figuring it out. And a lot of it had to do with getting out of her own way.
“(My vocal coach) said, ‘Well, you’re trying to sing in the 1989 animated feature. really well as Melissa, and Carroll said she modeled that’s never gonna happen.’ the vampy character after I was like, ‘OK, that’s getting drag performer Divine, who right to it,’” she said. was best known for working
“And he goes, ‘No, you’re with queer filmmaker John not, you’re not doing the role Waters. And actor-musician as you, but you’re singing as Queen Latifah took on the you.’ And I was like, ‘Oh.’ meaty role in ABC’s “The So then I knew how Ursula Little Mermaid Live!” and could sing. I couldn’t possi- was dubbed “the best part” bly sing it as myself. So that of the ill-received 2019 proreally helped. But it was terduction. (Grammy winner rifying, but so fun. My God, Lizzo also cast her rod to so fun.” play Ursula in the remake,
Ursula was famously but ultimately lost out to voiced by the late Pat Carroll McCarthy.)