'Offensive,' 'Ridiculous': 'Little Mermaid' Makeup Designer Claps Back at Criticism

Makeup artist Peter Smith King, who supervised the makeup on Disney's new live-action version of "The Little Mermaid," has responded to criticism of how he transformed Melissa McCarthy into the film's undersea villainess, Ursula.

"Why can't I do as good a job as a queer makeup artist?" King demanded in an interview with Insider.

King dismissed the critiques as "offensive" and "ridiculous," telling Insider, "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."

People Magazine recalled that King first started getting heat even before the film opened, "when a behind-the-scenes look at Melissa McCarthy's transformation... was shared to Twitter," and "social media users, specifically those from the drag and LGBTQ+ communities, spoke out against" King being put in charge of the job.

"That's because the look of the under-the-sea villain in the original 1989 animation was inspired by the late drag icon Divine," People Mag detailed. "The fact that she was being brought to life in the 2023 film by a non-drag artist stirred some controversy."

The animator for the 1989 original film, Rob Minkoff, drew on Divine's look for Ursula's look because, he told Vogue, "Divine seemed like such a great, larger than life character, and it just seemed like a funny and quirky idea to take [Ursula] and treat her more like a drag queen," Insider recalled.

McCarthy followed that lead for her performance, People Mag noted, and talked "about drawing from drag for her performance of Ursula, telling Deadline at the film's recent Los Angeles premiere, 'I hope to do every incredible drag queen proud.'"

But that was McCarthy's choice as an actor. King told Insider that he did not base Ursula's look on Divine, or on any other drag performer, explaining that he and McCarthy "discussed everything. I mean, we both laughed about how much we love drag queens and drag makeup and stuff. But [the makeup] wasn't based on any drag acts at all."

But criticisms centered on the notion that the makeup ought to have reflected drag stylings.

"'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 14 contestant Kerri Colby responded to a video on Twitter, stating that '[this is] absolutely why we should hire up and coming queer artists with a pulse on the present and a vision for the future more often,'" Variety reported.

Others offered sharper assessments, with drag artist Sierra La Puerta tweeting an image of McCarthy in Ursula makeup along with the caption, "We said Ursula was inspired by a drag queen we didn't mean one who had only been doing it for 3 months bc- ".

In any case, McCarthy's look for Ursula "was me. I didn't really draw on anything," King told Insider. "I played around quite a lot with different colors, different shapes," and he relied on McCarthy to be a collaborator in the process.

"It just was sort of Melissa and I talking and creating," King said.