From the day that Halle Bailey’s casting as Ariel in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid was announced, she has had her star linked to that of Oscar winner Halle Berry. The similarities in their names led to more than a little confusion, but one of the results is that Halle Berry has been supporting Bailey’s movie since day one, and that hasn’t stopped since it opened.
There were a lot of very confused people a few years ago when it was revealed that Halle Bailey had been cast as the live-action Ariel and people, who did not know Bailey from her music career, believed that Halle Berry had been cast in the role. Berry has had fun with the confusion ever since, but she’s also become Bailey’s number-one cheerleader. She took to Instagram to celebrate the opening of the movie that linked them together.
I mean, on the one hand, it makes sense why people would have done a double-take when they thought Halle Berry had been cast in The Little Mermaid. At the same time, it seems so unlikely that you’d think people would have taken a second look before completely losing their minds over the idea. Some people even continued to literally believe Berry had been cast as Ariel as late as last fall, when a trailer for The Little Mermaid existed, making it clear who was in the movie.
For her part, Halle Bailey has spoken about the similarity in their names, and she makes it clear she doesn’t mind how close they are, as she’s a big fan of Berry and there’s nobody else she’d rather get confused with. The feeling certainly seems mutual. Berry celebrated not once but twice recently, sharing a recent Glamour magazine cover of the actress.
If you’re going to have a Hollywood veteran in your corner there are a lot worse places to go than Halle Berry. The first Black woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress is an absolute trailblazer, and it’s not hard to draw a line between Berry’s success and the career that Halle Bailey has put together, which has now reached a new pinnacle with her playing the lead in a live-action remake of one of Disney’s most iconic animated films.
It will be interesting to see where Halle Bailey’s career goes from here. If nothing else, it seems clear that she’ll continue to have Halle Berry in her corner, cheering her on with each new success. The Little Mermaid is certainly one of those successes, as the film received strong critical reviews overall and it won the box office two weekends in a row before Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse debuted this past weekend.