Halle Bailey was afraid to act in “The Little Mermaid” without her voice

Halle Bailey found it “scary” to have to act in “The Little Mermaid” without her voice.

The 23-year-old star plays Ariel in the live-action Disney film and spoke about the limitations of her voice when her character in the film trades her vocal cords for human legs as part of a deal with the sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy).

Halle, who is one half of the musical duo Chloe x Halle with her sister Chloe Bailey, told the Hollywood Reporter: “It was definitely a little scary to perform with a lost voice, but it was also really cool because as singers we take what’s called a vocal break when our voice is under stress or we’re using it too much. So it’s almost like this really cool meditative state that you get into and it just calms you down and resets you.”

“Of course I was a little nervous on set because I didn’t have to talk and show all those emotions on my face, but it was a good middle ground.”

There’s a scene in the film where Ariel jumps out of the water and flips her hair back. Halle admitted it took her several tries to perfect the shot.

She recalled: “Oh wow, we did a lot of takes on it because there were so many technical elements to think about, and my hair is long. It was longer back then, but it was so heavy. Whenever it gets wet in the water, it gets so heavy, but I actually had this incredible stuntman named Dan who helped me.

“He held my hair underwater and then tossed it to me as I came up so it didn’t feel like such a weight on my shoulders. So we did it several times until it was just right.

“It looks so cool and perfect in the cartoon, so we tried to recreate it in real life.”