The Little Mermaid's Halle Bailey almost "broke her neck" filming Ariel's iconic hair flip

30 May 2023, 15:34

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By Sam Prance

"I've had my locs since I was 5. It feels like wool when it's wet. So it gets heavier."

Halle Bailey has opened up about filming The Little Mermaid and let slip that it took a "whole day" to get Ariel's hair flip right.

If you've seen Disney's new live-action version of The Little Mermaid, you will already know that it does more than justice to the original film. Not only is Halle Bailey the perfect Ariel but the entire ensemble cast is excellent. While the movie makes some changes to the animated version, it is, for the most part, a very loyal retelling of the beloved Disney musical.

In fact, The Little Mermaid is so loyal to the original that it recreates exact shots from the 1989 film. Now, Halle has revealed that she almost "broke her neck" filming Ariel's iconic hair flip because they had to re-film it multiple times to perfect it.

READ MORE: The Little Mermaid composer reveals why classic song was cut from the 2023 soundtrack

Discussing the sequence with Entertainment Weekly, Halle said: "That scene was so fun to do. It was definitely hard, though, because my hair was really, really heavy. I have my locs, which are my favorite thing. I've had my locs since I was 5. It feels like wool when it's wet. So it gets heavier. It kind of almost doubles the weight when they're heavy."

Explaining what happened, Halle added: "It was just a lot of hair on my head. So whenever I would get in the water, it would be heavy. So that one scene, it was really funny: that whole day we were trying to get it right, get it right, and finally they got a take that they really liked."

In a separate promo trailer for The Little Mermaid, Halle said: "I almost broke my neck. My hair was so heavy."

Based on the final scene, I think we can ALL agree that it was worth filming all day for.

Read more The Little Mermaid news here:

• Aladdin's Mena Massoud deletes Twitter over backlash to The Little Mermaid comment
• The Little Mermaid director slams racist backlash towards Halle Bailey's casting
• Halle Bailey says new Little Mermaid will be more "modern" than the original
• Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley is set to appear in Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid
• The Little Mermaid's Halle Bailey shares emotional response to young Black girls watching the trailer

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