Three years after the release of Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid,” Halle Bailey is looking back at the experience of playing Ariel and how she ultimately felt freed by the discourse that erupted around her casting. Racist trolls were outraged at Disney for casting a Black actor as Ariel, which made Bailey the target of online harassment from toxic fans. But she doesn’t look back at the film’s release with any negativity.

Speaking to The Independent on the press tour for her latest film, the romantic comedy “You, Me & Tuscany,” Bailey said “The Little Mermaid” was “a beautiful experience for me – and I feel like it taught me to listen to myself and the good voices inside. I learned how to block out the noise.”

“How do I explain it…” she continued. “It was actually freeing to be in the middle of this conversation where so many different opinions were coming in, and they were so opposite from one another… I felt like I was watching myself inside a cup, seeing how people react to it… Growing up in the industry can really develop your sense of self, and for me, it keeps me grounded in a way. I know for some people it’s the opposite but I just always think to myself, ‘None of this is real.’”

Bailey explained that she often goes out into nature to get the perspective she needs to stay levelheaded in Hollywood, saying: “I love feeling small, realizing that the world is so big and beautiful and I’m just a tiny, tiny part of it. The fact I’m here is a blessing, and I’m grateful [to be doing music and acting], but at the same time, this is not what matters in life. What matters is keeping our feet on the ground, and holding the people we love.”

A few months before “The Little Mermaid” opened in theaters in May 2023, Bailey told The Face that “as a Black person you just expect” the kind of racist backlash she endured for being cast as Ariel and “it’s not really a shock anymore.”

”When [Chlöe and I] first signed to Parkwood, [Beyoncé] was always like: ​’I never read my comments. Don’t ever read the comments,’” she added at the time. “Honestly, when the teaser came out, I was at the D23 Expo and I was so happy. I didn’t see any of the negativity. I know people are like: ​’It’s not about race.’ But now that I’m her…People don’t understand that when you’re Black there’s this whole other community. It’s so important for us to see ourselves.”

Bailey had previously told Variety that her family helped her drown out the backlash when the #NotMyAriel hashtag started trending on X. Bailey’s grandparents shared their own memories with her of the racism and discrimination they faced in their lifetimes.

“It was an inspiring and beautiful thing to hear their words of encouragement, telling me, ‘You don’t understand what this is doing for us, for our community, for all the little Black and brown girls who are going to see themselves in you,’” she said.

“The Little Mermaid” director Rob Marshall later told Entertainment Weekly that he had “no agenda” when it came to the casting of Ariel and that his team auditioned “every ethnicity” for the role before landing on Bailey.

“We just were looking for the best actor for the role, period. The end,” Marshall said. “We saw everybody and every ethnicity. [The goal was to find someone who can be] incredibly strong, passionate, beautiful, smart, clever [and with] a great deal of fire and joy.”

Head over to The Independent’s website to read Bailey’s profile in its entirety.