With her newest role, Melissa McCarthy is paying respect to the tradition of drag queens.
The actress, who is 52 years old, chatted with D.e.a.d.l.i.n.e on the red carpet of the global premiere of The Little Mermaid on Monday night in Los Angeles. In the film, she portrays Ursula, the evil sea witch who faces off against Halle Bailey’s Ariel.
McCarthy continued by saying that she has “just always thought drag was so much fun” and that she has “been a huge fan of drag” since she was a teenager. It has a mocking tone. It is possible to make light of someone while yet showing respect for them. It’s like getting a bunch of great stuff in one bite. ”
She also said that, as a result of her time spent working as a nanny, she had “watched [the original 1989 animated version of] The Little Mermaid more times than any other movie,” adding, “and I always was like, I know for a fact, but I couldn’t prove it, that [Ursula] had to be based on Divine.”
“She just needed to be — I was thinking, the makeup, the outfit, the mannerisms. And now we know that yes, she was of course modeled on Divine,” McCarthy said. “And now we know that.”
She told D.e.a.d.l.i.n.e that the sensation of slipping inside Ursula’s tentacles was a “full-circle” moment for her because of her passion for drag and the fact that she had seen the animated feature so many times in the past.
“I just hope to make each and every incredible drag queen as well as Divine proud,” she said. McCarthy advised people to “just give that same attitude,” which means “to give it your all, to throw it out there, to make no apologies, and to do it your way.” “I wanted to give Divine everything she was entitled to,” you said.
After channeling the Pink Flamingos actress in a cover picture session for Entertainment Weekly’s 2011 humor edition, McCarthy made her remarks at the premiere, which took place more than a decade after the photo shoot. Last month, she said to EW that the picture session is, to this day, “my favorite photo shoot I’ve ever done in my entire life.”
“There’s a drag queen that lives in me,” the Bridesmaids actress said in an interview with EW, confirming that drag was a significant source of motivation for her Ursula portrayal. I am constantly so close to making the decision to move in with her full-time.
“To keep the humor and the sadness and the edginess that Ursula has is everything I want in a character — and frankly, everything I want in a drag queen,” she continued.
During an interview with PEOPLE that took place a month ago at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, McCarthy referred to the opportunity to portray Ursula as “a fever dream.”
“I think it took quite some time for me to kind of digest that,” she said. “It was a lot to take in.”
The actress, who is nominated for an Academy Award and just featured on the cover of PEOPLE magazine’s 2023 Beautiful Issue, discussed the process of becoming the legendary Disney villain as well as the different “extremes” involved in portraying the famed sea witch. She also said that she had a lot of fun playing the role.
McCarthy referred to Ursula as “bigger than life” while describing her. “So then to sort of have to live with her for that long and really think about, like, what is it that she is terrified of? Why does she feel the need to be so insecure? At the very end, I realized that I loved her in such a different manner than I had before.”
On May 26th, The Little Mermaid will be released in cinemas.
