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Melissa McCarthy Is Reportedly Playing Ursula in Disney's Live-Action 'The Little Mermaid'—And Twitter Has Thoughts

Disney’s continuing with their live-action remakes of favorite animated classics—most recently Aladdin, currently in theaters, as well as The Lion King, starring Beyoncé and Donald Glover and set to come out July 19. Also on the slate? A revival of The Little Mermaid, which will likely have a similarly star-studded cast. Of course, people are watching closely to find out who’s going to be playing their favorite characters from the original 1989 film, and one reported potential casting is spurring some conversation on Twitter. According to Variety on Friday, Melissa McCarthy is in “early talks” to play the very memorable Ursula, and while a lot of people are thrilled—she’s hilarious, after all!—others on Twitter have some thoughts about it.

Some bring up the point that in the original Disney film, Ursula was inspired by the late drag queen Divine—so for Disney to skip picking an LGBTQ+ actor or drag queen for the role is to miss an opportunity for greater representation, especially with the news coming at the end of Pride Month. (Although inspired by Divine, Ursula was originally voiced in the 1989 movie by Pat Carroll, a cisgender white woman.) Top names on Twitter for the casting include Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt‘s Tituss Burgess, Danielle Brooks, TS Madison, and pop singer Lizzo, who has been a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race and is a strong ally of the LGBTQ+ community.

Lizzo actually posted an audition video for the film last year to Twitter.

She reacted to the news of McCarthy’s reported casting with the pleading face emoji:

A lot of people would also really, really like Ginger Minj, a runner-up on season seven of RuPaul’s Drag Race, to play Ursula.

She had her thoughts about the news, too:

Another Twitter favorite for the role is Tituss Burguss:

Like Lizzo, he basically already has an audition tape:

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We’re still waiting to hear about the rest of the casting, but last October, Zendaya responded to rumors that she’d been offered the role of Ariel. “It’s just the rumor, so we will see,” she told People at the time, adding that The Little Mermaid had been one of her favorite movies as a little kid.

As far as what we know about the rest of the movie, a few details have been finalized: Per Variety, Mary Poppins Returns director Rob Marshall is leading the project, and Lin-Manuel Miranda is working on some new songs for the movie with the first movie’s original songwriter, Alan Menken. (Don’t worry, the classic songs will still be in there too.)

Of course, nothing about casting Ursula is set in stone yet. According to Variety, no final decisions have been made, and no contracts have been signed—so we’ll have to wait and see.

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Melissa McCarthy Says Someone Actually Asked About Her ‘Tremendous Size’ in an Interview

In a new interview with InStyle magazine, Melissa McCarthy opens up about the body-shaming she experienced early on in her career. After her breakout role in 2011’s Bridesmaids, the actress says she became a target for offensive questions at press junkets. During one instance, McCarthy recalls a journalist flat-out calling her “grotesque.”

“Years ago, I was at a press conference for either The Heat or Tammy and somebody from a very big organization kept asking me, ‘Why do you always feel the need to be so grotesque?’” McCarthy tells InStyle. “It was a huge interview with maybe 100 people in the room and he was sneering.”

She remained calm, though. “What are we talking about? I can’t answer your question because I don’t understand it,” McCarthy said in response to the reporter. He then said, “You look sloppy, you’re not wearing any makeup, your hair is not done, you’re yelling at people.”

McCarthy took this opportunity to point out the double standard between men and women on film. “I was like, ‘OK, so have you ever asked this of a guy? I’m playing a character. You need to get out more if you don’t think there are real women like that,’” she said. “[The journalist] goes, ‘Oh, fine, I’m aggressive, call it whatever you want. If you don’t want to answer the questions, you shouldn’t come to the panel.’”

PHOTO: Getty Imagees

But the Can You Ever Forgive Me? actress didn’t back down. “I was like, ‘I really want to answer your questions. I’m sorry I didn’t wear makeup in a part. I’m sorry I didn’t look pleasant for you. But I also don’t think you should be here writing about movies,’” she said.

McCarthy received a similar line of rude questioning while promoting Bridesmaids seven years ago. “[The reporter] kept asking, ‘Are you shocked that you actually work in this business at your tremendous size?'” she recalls. “I just remember all the blood drained out of me. I thought, ‘With my tremendous size, I could tackle you so quickly.'”

This conversation happened on camera, but producers from the outlet assured McCarthy they’d never air the journalist’s remarks. “It happens all the time, to the point where it’s fascinating because they don’t do it to men,” she said. “Not to be a jerk or single him out, but when John Goodman was heavier, did anybody ever talk about his girth?”

Read the rest of McCarthy’s conversation with InStyle here.

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