Disney's live-action remake of The Little Mermaid hits theaters this week and fans couldn't be more excited. The movie is a retelling of the classic animated 1989 version, with up-and-coming actors, great special effects, updated songs, and cool CGI. The film stars Halle Bailey as the title character, with Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Javier Bardem as King Triton, and Johan Hauer-King as Prince Eric. Hamilton stars Daveed Diggs and Lin Manuel-Miranda also appear in smaller roles.
Disney movie enthusiasts have high expectations for The Little Mermaid and hope it will land somewhere on the list of Disney's best live-action princess movies. In the meantime, it's always fun to check out the previous work of the actors involved. Here is a list of each actor's best movies, with reasons why they are worth a watch.
10 Halle Bailey - Last Holiday
Halle Bailey is an American actor that some people might not be familiar with. Despite the closeness in name, she is not related to established actor Halle Berry, though the two recently shared a nice moment over the similarity. Bailey is also a singer and released an album called Ungodly Hour as part of a duo called Chloe x Halle in 2020. Director Rob Marshall chose Bailey for the role of Ariel due to her youth, spirit, heart, and excellent singing voice.
Bailey's best previous movie is Last Holiday, starring Queen Latifah. In the movie, Latifah plays a woman named Georgia Byrd who gets some bad news from her doctor about her health. As a result, she pledges to live her life to the fullest until her time is up. Bailey plays Georgia's niece Tina in the movie. It's a small part, but it's the one that got Bailey started on the big screen.
9 Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
Melissa McCarthy is a hilarious actress who has appeared in many TV shows and movies over the years. In The Little Mermaid, she plays Ursula, the evil sea queen who steals Ariel's voice in exchange for making her human. McCarthy got her start in smaller productions and eventually became known for her role in the TV show Gilmore Girls. Later, she starred in the ABC comedy Samantha Who? and the very popular CBS sitcom Mike & Molly.
Over the years, McCarthy has become a star in her own right. She's led several high-profile comedy movies, such as Spy, The Heat, and Tammy. Her best movie, though, is Bridesmaids, starring Kirsten Wiig. In the film, McCarthy plays Wiig's harsh but loving friend and encourages her to get her life together by solving her own problems. Bridesmaids is full of belly laughs and McCarthy's parts will have you rolling on the floor.
8 Jonah Hauer-King - A Dog's Way Home
Jonah Hauer-King is another new face to Disney fans. He plays Prince Eric in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. He's an English actor who has appeared in smaller films such as The Last Photograph, Postcards From London, and the wartime drama Ashes in the Snow. Hauer is prominently featured in The Little Mermaid, especially in the recently released "Kiss the Girl" scene.
Hauer-King's best movie is A Dog's Way Home, which also featured Bryce Dallas Howard and Ashley Judd. It's a family adventure movie about an adorable dog who travels across America to find her owner. Though it's a simple premise, the movie was hugely successful, making over $80 million against a modest $18 million budget.
7 Jacob Tremblay - Doctor Sleep
Jacob Tremblay is a Canadian actor from Vancouver, British Columbia. Although he's only 16 years old, he's earned several high-profile film credits already. In 2017, he starred as August "Auggie" Pullman in the critically acclaimed film Wonder. He later voiced the title character Luca in Pixar's animated movie Luca in 2021.
In The Little Mermaid, Tremblay provides the voice of Flounder, Ariel's innocent fish friend. Some people have criticized Flounder's CGI design, which Tremblay recently defended. Though Tremblay has already appeared in several successful movies, his best previous film was 2019's Doctor Sleep, where he plays Bradley Trevor, aka "baseball boy," a kid who is killed by an evil cult of psychics called the True Knots.
6 Daveed Diggs - Hamilton
Daveed Diggs is an actor and rapper from Oakland, California. He's a veteran of theater, music, and film, and balances acting on TV and in movies with performing with his musical group Clipping. In 2016, he gained worldwide attention for his masterful performance in the Broadway musical Hamilton, written and directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. In the play, Diggs pulls double duty as Thomas Jefferson and Marquis Layfayette, the latter of which catapulted him to stardom due to his insane rapping skills.
Diggs also appeared in Wonder as Auggie's teacher, Mr. Browne. He has appeared in dozens of TV shows and movies over the years, including Law & Order: SVU, The Get Down, and Black-ish, to name a few. Hamilton is his best movie, as a film version of the musical was released on Disney+ in 2020. Pretty much all of Diggs' previous performances are worth checking out, though.
5 Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
Like Melissa McCarthy, Javier Bardem is an accomplished actor who has been around for many years. A couple of his more memorable roles are in Woody Allen's Vicky Christina Barcelona and Sam Mendes Bond flick Skyfall. In The Little Mermaid, he plays King Triton, Ariel's firm but fair father. He can be strict with his daughters, but his tough love approach is only because he loves them and wants to protect them.
Bardem's best movie came out in 2007. It was a Coen brother's Western thriller called No Country for Old Men. Based on the bestselling book of the same name by Cormac McCarthy, the movie centered around a small-town sheriff investigating the source of some particularly violent murders. It's discovered that an evil hitman named Anton Chigurh has been hired to recover some stolen drug money, and he'll kill everyone in his path to retrieve it. Bardem won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Chigurh.
4 Awkwafina - The Farewell
Awkwafina is an American actor from New York. She attended college in Albany and decided to get into the movie business in 2016. She had a small voice role in Storks before acting in big-budget movies like Ocean's 8 and Crazy Rich Asians. She recently said that the cast of Crazy Rich Asians would be excited to make a sequel. In The Little Mermaid, Awkwafina voices Scuttle, an eccentric seagull who helps Ariel understand the human world.
Awkwafina's best movie is 2019's The Farewell. In the movie, she plays Billi Wang, an amateur writer who enjoys bonding with her grandmother. When the family finds out the grandmother only has a few months to live, they decided to keep it a secret from her. The movie was nominated for multiple awards, with Awkwafina winning a Golden Globe for Best Actress - Musical or Comedy.
3 Simone Ashley - Detective Pikachu
Simone Ashley is a British-Indian actress whose career is on the rise. Although she only has a handful of credits to her name, she's already starred in a couple of hit Netflix shows: Sex Education and Bridgerton. She also appeared in the music video for the electronic dance single "Love Letter" by Odesza featuring The Knocks.
Simone Ashley's film credits are scarce, but her best movie so far is Detective Pikachu, starring Ryan Reynolds. The movie came out in 2019 and is based on the popular Pokémon character. There might even be a Detective Pikachu sequel in the works. In The Little Mermaid, Ashley plays Indira, one of Ariel's sisters. She also has a voice part in the upcoming animated movie 10 Lives.
2 Jessica Alexander - Glasshouse
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Jessica Alexander started acting when she was just 14 years old. She got a major part in the Italian Disney Channel series Penny on M.A.R.S., playing the role of Lucy Carpenter. She quickly signed a deal with a modeling agency and starred in the teen show Get Even, about a group of girls that comes together to stop bullies at their school.
Alexander is new to major motion pictures, and The Little Mermaid is her first big-budget major release. Her best movie so far is Glasshouse, a South African thriller about a mother and her kids who isolate themselves in a greenhouse as a deadly toxin sweeps across the nation. The film was shot on location in South Africa and currently holds an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
1 Lin-Manuel Miranda - Hamilton
Lin Manuel-Miranda is an accomplished actor on the stage and screen. He first rose to prominence as the creator of the musicals In the Heights - which was adapted to film in 2021- and Hamilton, which debuted on Broadway in New York City in 2015. In Hamilton, Miranda performed as the title character during a very successful theatrical run. The movie version of Hamilton, filmed live on stage, was released on Disney+ in 2020.
Speaking of Disney, Miranda is no stranger to the House of Mouse. He starred in the hit movie Mary Poppins Returns alongside Emily Blunt, who played the title character. Miranda also wrote songs for the animated film Moana, and worked on music for The Little Mermaid. In the movie, he's Chef Louis, Prince Eric's bumbling French chef who has a beef against Sebastian.
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