Halle Bailey was one of the people contributing to the box office success of “The Little Mermaid” this weekend.
The 23-year-old Disney star wore oversized sunglasses and a mask along with a long coat as she walked into the theater to see the Disney classic reimagined. She shared a video of her experience to TikTok on Sunday which has been seen more than 7 million times.
“The Little Mermaid” earned $95.5 million at the box office for the opening weekend in North America.
@hallebailey can’t believe the little mermaid is the #1 ♬ Part of Your World – From “The Little Mermaid” – Halle
Halle also went through a hair transformation to become a redhead to get into character for to play Princess Ariel.
Keeping her locks was meaningful to Halle. She told Ebony magazine, “It was super important for me to have my natural hair in this film … We need to be able to see ourselves, we need to be able to see our hair on big screens like this, so that we know that it’s beautiful and more than acceptable.”
The movie’s hair department head Camille Friend also told Variety all the details behind the impressive hair transformation, “I went to meet with Halle’s family. Her mother is spiritual and they’re a kind family. I started to understand who she was and why the natural hair element was important to keep.”
They quickly decided that they wouldn’t cut Halle’s natural hair or use a wig. Camille said, “Halle’s locks are down to her waist, over 24 inches. And putting her in a wig was going to look crazy.”
She ultimately decided to wrap red hair around Halle’s hair. She explained, “If we take hair and wrap it around her locks, we don’t have to cut them and we don’t have to color them. We can change her color without changing her internal hair structure. Her structure and her hair are her.”
Camille and her team used thirty-inch-long hair that was custom colored in three shades of red and fused in with keratin tips … the process of wrapping them took between twelve and fourteen hours – and it was quite an investment…
Camille said, “I’m not guesstimating, but we probably spent at least $150,000 because we had to redo it and take it out. You couldn’t use it and we’d have to start again. It was a process.”
Halle Bailey Gushes Over Adorable Girl With ‘Little Mermaid’ Doll At U.K. Premiere
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