Before Ginger Minj would dominate multiple seasons of "RuPaul’s Drag Race," act in major movies and write a cookbook, she was a young boy in 1980s Florida looking into the eyes of an octopus … and seeing herself look back.
“The Little Mermaid’ was the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater,” the drag queen, 38, tells TODAY.com. Minj’s neighbor, and “only friend,” was a redhead who wanted to see the movie because she wanted to be Ariel.
"I thought, ‘Well, that’s what I want to be. I don’t know how I’m gonna be a sea witch. But that’s what I want to be.’ And I strived to be that for the rest of my life.”
“I felt like I had nobody,” Minj says. “Then, all of a sudden, the most gorgeous creature I’ve ever seen turns around. That’s how I felt about Ursula. I didn’t really understand why I was so obsessed with her immediately. I thought, 'You’re the complete antithesis of everything I’ve ever been told is attractive: You’re fat, you’re an octopus, your hair is short, and you’re wearing too much makeup.' But I thought, 'Well, that’s what I want to be. I don’t know how I’m gonna be a sea witch. But that’s what I want to be.' And I strived to be that for the rest of my life.”
"I thought, ‘Well, that’s what I want to be. I don’t know how I’m gonna be a sea witch. But that’s what I want to be.’ And I strived to be that for the rest of my life.”
Ginger Minj on the first time she saw ursula
The selfish, slimy, cold-hearted octopus with a gaudy sense of style and a lust for power is crucial to Ariel’s tale in Disney's version of “The Little Mermaid." Ursula uses her prowess in magic potions to take advantage of her niece’s desire for a human prince, convincing her to hand over siren-song-producing voice and finally giving the sea witch the upper hand over her brother.
The 2023 remake starring Halle Bailey as Ariel and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula puts familiar characters back into the spotlight, with some alterations made to meet the moment.
“Adaptation is such a huge part of fairytales’ survival in society,” says Bee Eldridge, a doctoral candidate at the University of London focusing on representation in fairytales and a blog editor for the Disney, Culture & Society Research Network. “They have to adapt to survive.”
“The Little Mermaid” has changed since Hans Christian Andersen’s original rendering, thanks to Disney’s intervention (for one, now it has a happy ending). Bailey’s casting in the role was both embraced and met with racist backlash. Does this era also call for a different villain — one that nods to the character’s drag roots more overtly at a time when state legislatures are calling to ban the art form?
TODAY.com spoke to drag performers to get their thoughts.
Ursula’s drag roots
The Ursula we know (and fear) was almost not. Disney worked through several versions of “The Little Mermaid’s” antagonist, from trying to cast Bea Arthur, Joan Collins and Broadway star Elaine Stritch to voice the villain to considering her form to a shark.
Ultimately, the inspiration for the cauldron-stirring tentacled witch — voiced by Pat Carroll — came from an unlikely place: Drag. Specifically, Divine, the drag alter ego of Harris Glenn Milstead. Rob Minkoff, the original movie’s animator, told Vogue that it seemed like a “funny and quirky idea” to “take (Ursula) and treat her more like a drag queen.”
Named the “Drag Queen of the Century” by People Magazine in 1988, Divine is known for starring in John Waters’ movies “Pink Flamingos” and “Hairspray.”
“He was this larger-than-life character, who was nothing but heart and joy and an extreme expression of love,” drag queen Nina West, who both played Divine in the 2022 film “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” and is completing a national tour as Edna Turnblad in the musical “Hairspray”, which starred Divine in the same role, tells TODAY.com. “He just wanted to tell stories that helped push the needle.”
With Divine’s plus-sized, curvaceous figure, signature hyper-arched brows painted almost into his wig, and a joyful proclivity for the crude and obscene, it’s not hard to see the through-line from this drag superstar to the under-the-sea provocateur.
“When I discovered ‘Pink Flamingos’, I was watching it going, that person looks so familiar to me,” Minj says. “I realized, oh my gosh, that’s Ursula! This is the real life embodiment of Ursula.”
Could a drag queen play Ursula in 2023? For a moment, maybe
When the live-action remake was first announced in 2016, calls for a drag queen Ursula arose and fans cast Ginger Minj into the running, citing videos of her performing Ursula’s marquee number “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” Major publications like Billboard got on board, running headlines like “Why Disney Should Cast Ginger Minj As Ursula In the Live-Action ‘Little Mermaid’ Remake.”
And Disney actually listened, Minj says.
“I didn’t think I did have an opportunity, until I actually ended up in the conversation in the room for it.” Minj tells TODAY that she auditioned with Disney for the role of Ursula.
While the role ended up going to Melissa McCarthy, Minj’s audition, which, she tells TODAY, is described in more detail in her upcoming book “Southern Fried Sass,” did not end up not being fruitless.
“When I went back to Disney and did a different project for them that hasn’t been announced yet, I was told by several of the higher-ups there that this was created for me as an apology for Ursula. It was kind of like, you made a great impression with us and we wish we could have gone that direction, but we couldn’t."
TODAY.com has reached out to Disney for comment.
Minj says she went into the audition process not expecting too much. “In the back of my mind, I felt like, no matter how well I do, no matter how much I want it, or if they want me to have it, for some reason, it’s not going to happen.” And while she was still “very sad” to not get the part, she says it wasn’t about just her, but about “what a great big opportunity that would have been for our entire community.”
“I don’t know if I ever took (the calls to cast a drag queen) seriously,” West says. “It was like, I’ll believe it when it happens, but I don’t think it’ll happen. But boy, it’s so fun to think about.”
‘No representation or bad representation’: Queer villains in Disney movies
Eldridge says “The Little Mermaid” remake comes at a time when Disney is “trying to be more inclusive” in terms of representation. While “Strange World” (2022) is the first Disney movie with an openly queer lead character, many fans and scholars believe that queer characters have been there all along — but haven’t been labeled as such.
“Throughout all of Disney, queer characters have existed but started as villains,” Eldrige says. Scar in “Lion King”, Jafar in “Aladdin”, and Ursula are all considered “queer coded,” who have characteristics that reflect queer stereotypes. Many believe their queer-coded mannerisms were meant to separate the villains from the “good” characters, and makes them seem strange or unconventional.
The complexity grows when acknowledging the breadth and history of LGBTQ+ talent behind these characters, including legendary Disney animator Andreas Deja, lyricist Howard Ashman, and even Hans Christian Andersen himself, who scholars like Eldridge believe had relationships with other men during his life.
“(Queer people) either get no representation or bad representation,” Eldridge tells TODAY. “Some people say bad representation is at least representation. I think bad representation is bad representation, and it needs to be changed. It’s time for us to get good representation.”
But some, like Minj, who was able to circumvent societal norms to see the beauty in Ursula as a child, see these so-called “villains” differently, especially with the sea witch's expanded backstory in the remake.
“They’re just strong people, like myself, having been forced to learn how to be strong, and how to be fabulous, in spite of everything else. I have often been called a villain by the people who don’t understand me. They’re just afraid of how powerful I am. Ursula has motivation to be doing the things that she’s doing. She has suffered abuse by Triton, her brother, her family, who has exiled her. A lot of queer people really identify with that, because most of us have been thrown out of our families, kicked to the side, and been forced to find our own way. And maybe that makes us a little bit bitter. But it also gives us a lot of power.”
Melissa McCarthy embraced Ursula’s drag roots
Ultimately, Melissa McCarthy was cast in the part for the 2023 remake, and openly acknowledged the character’s drag inspiration — as well as making connections with real queens. West recalls a touching moment on the “Little Mermaid” blue carpet this past year.
“I was walking to turn into the Dolby Theater,” Nina says, “and someone grabbed my hand and said, please come with me, someone would like to meet you. So I’m walking towards someone and she turned around. It was Melissa McCarthy. And I was shocked. She was so absolutely kind and so sweet. And we were able to chat about a few things.”
Topics included their shared love of drag, her advocacy for the LGBTQIA+ community, and even an invitation from McCarthy to have West over for breakfast (West Nina says the breakfast has not yet occurred, but has “been assured that it is happening”).
To top it off, the two then broke into a brief song and dance for the swarm of cameras. McCarthy posted the moment, which begins with her bowing to Nina West, to her Instagram account with the caption, “On second thought … DO meet your heroes!!!!!!!”
“She is telling the world who she is in bold, brave ways, especially in a time period when not a lot of people are doing this,” West says. “She’s promoting the biggest movie of the year, and she’s loved by people from all walks of life, and all different political beliefs, and here she is saying yeah, I could lose a fan or a few, and that doesn’t matter, because these people are in the fight for their lives.”
Minj agrees, telling TODAY, “Even before she took on this role, she was such an advocate for our community. And I think that that was a really smart casting decision on Disney’s part. They did the research that said, if we cannot cast a drag artist, we’re going to cast somebody who’s drag-adjacent, who appreciates that community, who will bring aspects of that to life and will also set that whole community that loves this character and movie at ease.”
About the makeup…
McCarthy, the queens say, was great. Her makeup? Not as much.
“The makeup just was not doing it for me,” says Minj, “because it was just so understated. Her look went from being over the top — like trashy, but in a really elegant way — to suddenly looking like the mother of the bride.”
A slew of posts questioned why a character known for extravagant makeup inspired by Divine’s dramatic look in this high budget production was given a flat, one-tone pane of green eye shadow and a pair of uneven and barely arched brows.
McCarthy’s set makeup artist Peter Smith King, who was featured in a behind-the-scenes vignette on the actress’ physical transformation posted to Disney’s social media, responded to criticisms.
Smith King said he intentionally did not want the actress to look like a drag queen, preferring to see more of McCarthy than of the makeup. Defending the uneven brows, he said he wanted it to look like Ursula did the makeup herself and did not have it done by a masterful professional. He also, in an interview with Insider, posed the question, “Why can’t I do as good a job as a queer makeup artist?”
“I don’t know. Why can’t you?” Minj retorts jokingly.
If a drag queen wasn’t going to be on screen, Minj thinks this was at least a window to have influence backstage.
“If you weren’t going to hire a drag queen, or somebody in the queer or drag space for the role, you should have hired them to help with the look,” Minj says. “It would have been an opportunity to still have our voices involved with this thing that has become so iconic for us.”
Minj feels it’s all the more urgent given the anti-trans and anti-drag legislation raised in certain states, like her home state of Florida.
“I live in Florida, so I really feel the brunt of it all,” says Minj. “I wake up every morning, and it feels like a new law against our community has been passed in the middle of the night. So it’s scary, and it’s disappointing, and it’s frustrating. But you can’t eradicate us, you can’t invalidate us. You can’t tell us that we don’t matter. We know that we do.”