Halle Bailey and Rachel Zegler on Becoming Disney Princesses, Singing Live on Set and Blocking Out Toxic Fans: ‘Stay Grateful and Ignore the Hate’

variety.com:

Halle Bailey and Rachel Zegler were crowned real-life Disney princesses, they met for the first time at a ball — the 2021 Met Gala, to be exact.

It was the beginning not only of a beautiful friendship, but of a new era for Disney. Bailey became the first Black Ariel in Rob Marshall’s live-action adaptation of “The Little Mermaid,” based on Disney’s beloved 1989 animated film.

Zegler — who used to dress up as Snow White as a little girl — will embody a Latina fairy-tale heroine who befriends seven CGI-created dwarves in 2025’s “Snow White.” The singer-actors are also showcasing their golden voices in literary adaptations: Bailey, as young Nettie in “The Color Purple”; Zegler, as Lucy Gray Baird in the “Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.” Here, Bailey, 23, and Zegler, 22, reflect on their princess experiences and strategies for silencing the social media haters. HALLE BAILEY: This is a whole new world! “Mermaid” was really my first big film, and it was interesting, because going into something that means so much to so many people for my first project was very overwhelming — but overwhelmingly beautiful.

When I wrapped, I felt such freedom and I was so proud of myself. I stumbled a bit along the way, but in the end, I came out way stronger.