The latest opportunity for mermaids is more diverse | Entertainment

On May 26, 2023, the live-action remake of Disney’s beloved animated classic The Little Mermaid is coming to theaters.

The project was bombarded with comments on Youtube, and the film’s trailer received a staggering 1 million dislikes. Much of this backlash and controversy stemmed from a young woman of color named Halle Bailey starring as Ariel. Despite the public bickering over the fictional mermaid, Hollywood has long had trouble casting actors from different backgrounds.

Beginning in the early 20th century, white performers would paint their faces black and exaggerate their facial features for bard performances, imitating African-American culture in dehumanizing and degrading ways. This was the birth of what today is called blackface. These attitudes infiltrated the entertainment industry of that era and set a precedent for decades to come.

Then you have legendary western actor John Wayne. The lead actor played the Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan in The Conqueror in 1956. The film is considered absurd farce by people today, but was considered serious at the time. It goes to show that these casting controversies weren’t even questioned in their day. They were accepted without hesitation due to the prevailing attitude of the majority class.

Then you have modern examples that are closer to contemporary arguments. The live-action remake of the beloved anime property faced a similar casting dilemma. “Dragon Ball: Evolution” chose famous American actor Justin Chatwin to play Sun Wukong, while Netflix’s “Ghost in the Shell” had the studio cast Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi. The characters in both projects are fictional, so presumably they could be portrayed by anyone the studio wants without offense. This is the argument used to justify Bailey’s role as Ariel in The Little Mermaid.

While robots and mermaids are fictional, the people who represent these characters are not. When it comes to inclusivity, it’s not about imposing the performance on the audience, but organically presenting the performance to an audience with a rich story and deep characters. Perhaps much of the backlash has to do with racists spewing hate in mermaid trailers on Youtube, or perhaps much of it stems from growing cynicism about the omnipresent trend of remaking beloved classics. In any case, performance in the media is one of the most important aspects of fostering a cohesive culture, but achieving performance in a fluid manner is just as important.