The makeup artist for Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” has responded to criticism surrounding the movie’s depiction of Ursula.
The nefarious sea witch — played by Melissa McCarthy in the new film — was originally inspired by Baltimore drag queen Divine. And some have argued that the studio should have hired a member of the LGBTQ+ community to style the beloved character for the 2023 adaptation, which opened in theaters this weekend.
But Peter Smith King, the British hair and makeup artist who created Ursula’s look for the blockbuster, called that criticism “ridiculous” in a recent interview with Insider.
“I find that very offensive,” he said. “Why can’t I do as good a job as a queer makeup artist?”
“That’s trying to claim it and that’s fine, if that’s what they wanna do, but don’t put people down because they’re not what they want it to be,” he added.
King also denied taking inspiration from the 1989 animated version of “The Little Mermaid” while styling McCarthy — despite her gravity-defying white plume of hair, dramatic eye-shadow and scarlet lipstick strongly resembling the animation from the original film.
“No, no. It was me. I didn’t really draw on anything. I played around quite a lot with different colors, different shapes, and stuff,” King told Insider.
“It just was sort of Melissa and I talking and creating. So I didn’t really draw on anything at all.”
Though King conceded that he and McCarthy “laughed about how much we love drag queens and drag makeup and stuff,” he claimed that his vision for Ursula wasn’t “based on Divine” or “any drag acts at all.”
“I personally don’t get it,” he continued. “Yes, I’m very old now … but a makeup artist or makeup designer could design makeup, they don’t have to have an attachment to the nature of what they’re doing.”
In a tweet earlier this month, former “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestant Kerri Colby cited King’s work as an example of “why we should hire up and coming queer artists with a pulse on the present and a vision for the future more often.”
“Hate to be shady but they should have hired a drag queen,” another person tweeted. “This make up looks like me 13 years ago, when I was drunk before pride one year.”
At the Los Angeles premiere of “The Little Mermaid,” McCarthy exalted drag performers and said that she always knew Ursula was based on Divine even though she “couldn’t prove it” when the cartoon came out decades ago.
“She just had to be,” McCarthy told Deadline.
“The makeup, the look, the attitude — and now we know that yes, she was of course based on Divine. So that coming full circle to me … I just hope to do every incredible drag queen proud and Divine proud.”
