Melissa McCarthy's Ursula Makeup Is Getting Ripped To Shreds By Drag Artists
Um, were her eyebrows supposed to look like that?
Even an evil octopus witch wants to look her best, but Melissa McCarthy’s new version of Ursula may need a little bit more help with that. At least, that’s what several drag artists are saying after Disney released a behind-the-scenes video of McCarthy’s makeup process for the movie. Since the Little Mermaid villain is famously inspired by a drag queen, drag performers are holding the live-action adaptation to a high bar, especially when it comes to the look. But sadly, the drag experts are not feeling McCarthy’s beat at all.
The controversy reached a fever pitch on May 16 when Walt Disney Studios tweeted out a short video of a make up artist transforming McCarthy into Ursula. Of course, it was an incredibly bold and colorful look making use of exaggerated drag makeup techniques. Except... those techniques weren’t applied very well, according to vocal drag stars online. The large swaths of green eyeshadow didn’t seem well-blended, and the lace on the wig was decidedly not laid correctly. But the true horror to all of drag-kind were the eyebrows. Artists immediately knew they were in for a trainwreck from the very start of the video when McCarthy’s MUA drew on her brows astoundingly unevenly. Sure, they say brows are supposed to be sisters and not twins, but these divas don’t even look related.
As the video went viral, drag artists voiced their disappointment in the mug.
The drag community is especially invested in the character of Ursula because the sea witch was inspired by the most famous drag queen of all time: Divine. The Little Mermaid’s writers and producers have detailed how John Waters’ filthy muse came to be the main inspiration for Ursula through a serendipitous meeting of Divine fans on the team.
McCarthy herself is well aware of this inspiration. She’s said that her take on Ursula is inspired by drag queens, which is actually a world that she knows personally. Even before she was cast as Ursula, McCarthy had revealed that she used to perform in drag when she was coming up as a comedian in New York. She even took the stage at New York City’s iconic drag festival Wigstock in her drag persona, named Miss Y.
Now, McCarthy is getting back into drag for this new role, and hopefully the makeup will be more of a serve on the big screen than it was in that quick Twitter video.
