Both Lizzo and Melissa McCarthy auditioned to play the part of Ursula on Disney's live-action of The Little Mermaid. Of course, only one of the celebs could eventually get cast for the role, and it ended up being McCarthy. After they both received the news Lizzo ran into the actress who gave her the most hilarious response ever. Here's what happened.
Back in 2018, Lizzo shared a video on her Instagram where she was fully dressed from head to toe in an Ursula costume. From the purple body paint to the gigantic white wig, and even the intensely high eyebrows, let's just say Lizzo understood the assignment. The singer was belting out the lyrics to the iconic song Poor Unfortunate Souls. The viral clip was captioned, "I'M URSULA. PERIOD. @Disney." The 33-year old artist even posted another tweet exclaiming that it has always been a "dream" for her to play the villain. But unfortunately, she wasn't picked for the part.
I’M URSULA. PERIOD. @Disney pic.twitter.com/9YPVPPvVpz
— LIZZOOOOO (@lizzo) November 1, 2018
While many loved the idea of McCarthy as Ursula, fans of Lizzo thought that Disney's casting directors were wrong. They believed that the part should have been given to either a Black woman or a drag queen - as the original character was inspired by the late drag queen, Divine. Recently the singer opened up about how she felt about not being cast on her cover story with Variety. Everyone knows I auditioned for Ursula in The Little Mermaid, and I didn't get it. But you know, I'm fine as h*ll. That has nothing to do with Ursula, but I was down to make Ursula a THOT, shaking a**," she said. The Truth Hurts artist then shared that she ended up running to McCarthy, but there was no bad blood between the two.
Instead, they ended up bonding over the whole experience. "She was like, 'Hi, I’m Melissa,'" Lizzo said. "And I was like, 'Hi, I’m Melissa (Lizzo's birth name). And I also auditioned for Ursula.' And she was like, 'Well, why the h*ll did I get the part?' which is a classic Melissa McCarthy thing to say," she joked. LOL. "And then I was like, ‘Girl, because my audition was terrible,’" Lizzo answered back to the actress. But she further explain that she has no regrets: "Sometimes I like to make jokes. My audition was good. You can ask Disney. I don’t want to talk too much about it. The singing was great. I’ll just say that."
