Halle Bailey Ignores Racist ‘The Little Mermaid’ Trolls: ‘As a Black Person You Expect It’ and ‘It’s Not a Shock Anymore’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Another trailer for Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid” dropped on Feb. 15, which meant star Halle Bailey had to deal with another round of racist trolls using social media to complain about a Black actor taking on the role of princess Ariel.

It’s hardly the first time Bailey has had to tune out racist backlash. Both her casting announcement in 2019 and the film’s first trailer last year sent racist trolls into a tizzy online. “As a Black person, you just expect it and it’s not really a shock anymore,” Bailey now told The Face in a new cover story interview. ​”When [Chlöe and I] first signed to Parkwood, [Beyoncé] was always like: ​’I never read my comments.

Don’t ever read the comments.’ Honestly, when the teaser came out, I was at the D23 Expo and I was so happy. I didn’t see any of the negativity.” “I know people are like: ​’It’s not about race.’ But now that I’m her…People don’t understand that when you’re Black there’s this whole other community,” Bailey added. “It’s so important for us to see ourselves.” Bailey has been only focusing on the positive when it comes to the reaction to her “The Little Mermaid” casting.

When racist trolls stormed the internet after the film’s trailer dropped last year, Bailey instead shared supercuts and montages of young Black girls getting emotional while watching the first footage of her as Ariel. “People have been sending these reactions to me all weekend and I’m truly in awe,” Bailey wrote on Twitter at the time “This means the world to me.” “The Little Mermaid” director Rob Marshall previously told Entertainment Weekly that he had “no agenda” when it came to the casting of Ariel and that his team auditioned “every ethnicity” for the role before landing on