Halle Bailey recalls how she dealt with racist remarks after ‘Little Mermaid’: ‘I learnt how to block out the noise’

Halle Bailey’s casting in the live-action ’ Little Mermaid ’ brought on a lot of debate. While many people were happy with it, there were some netizens who expressed their disdain over the matter quite strongly on social media platforms. Recalling the time, the famed actress recently opened up about working on the live-action film, and how she dealt with the racist remarks that came with.While talking to The Independent recently, Bailey remembered what it was like to read the comments directed at her after ‘Little Mermaid’ casting was announced. She shared that at the time, a lot of people directed their hate at her and would often issue racist and derogatory remarks at her. She shared that going through all of that taught her how to listen to herself and “the good voices inside.” She further quipped that “I learnt how to block out the noise.” “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,” the star admitted. She opened up about how it was a different experience altogether to see conversations about such a thing going online.Halle Bailey is not the only one who has encountered such comments. In light of being announced as the new Severus Snape in the ‘Harry Potter’ series, actor Paapa Essiedu has also opened up about getting racist comments, along with death threats for his new role. While talking to The Times, he shared, “It really matters. The reality is that if I look at Instagram I will see somebody saying, ‘I’m going to come to your house and kill you.’ So while I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be murdered… That could age badly! But, yes, while I hope I’ll be OK, nobody should have to encounter this for doing their job.”