TheLittleMermaid’s Ursula is a character who not only occupies prime position as one of the most thrillingly evil Disney characters, but who brings with her a lesser known history directly related to the rich and colorful drag tradition.
With a character as storied as Ursula, creating a new iteration was no easy feat. The team had to strike a balance between paying tribute to the original, while also creating something fresh, exciting, and distinct to McCarthy and her talents. The Ursula they decided on had a 1950s Peggy Lee vibe combined with an octopus-inspired fashion sense.
“I’ve never been to so many aquariums in my life,” Atwood says of studying the eight-tentacled creatures that inspired her design. “Instead of going with a smooth surface like the animated film did, I really wanted to have the dimension of the texture of a real octopus.” To achieve that, she used a sequin fabric base with a laser cut leather on top — and in another divergence from the animation, added a dramatic collar.
King had intended to have someone else execute his vision but ultimately he decided to handle McCarthy’s makeup himself, and the pair instantly bonded over their mutual love of drag. He insists that his initial ideas weren’t based on drag queens, instead saying that he simply set out to create an “outrageous” face without losing McCarthy under it.
But sure enough, when it came time to create the dramatic look, King “went straight online and watched drag artists get rid of their eyebrows. So thank you all drag queens out there, because it was down to you,” King says, referring to the drag technique of gluing down eyebrows to then draw on new, more dramatic ones. “We have a white version of the purple [glue] stick they use, and I used that on her.
That concept, of Ursula putting on her own glamorous battle armor is one that Atwood echoes. “I like the idea that drag artists make their own costumes, so it’s really part of them. Ursula kind of created her own costumes,” Atwood says. “She’s a vulnerable character. She's shielding herself from the rejection that she’s suffered, and having that layer of artifice, as opposed to literal armor, is a metaphor for all that.
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