Filming occurred in London over the course of six months amid the COVID pandemic and the UK shutdown. Although it was “gloomy all the time” and Bailey was away from her household—a primary for her—“it was a really cool learning experience and time of development for me on my own,” she says. And alongside the way in which she constructed significant relationships together with her costars. In Bardem she discovered an encouraging, seasoned actor who, regardless of his critical demeanor, is “also the kindest teddy-bear man ever.” Newcomer Hauer-King, Bailey says, “will be one of my best friends forever.” The pair spent essentially the most display screen time collectively, bonding over a grueling shoot schedule that noticed them leaping off a ship sooner or later and suspended within the air the following. In McCarthy she discovered a blueprint. “At the end of the film, when we wrapped, I had learned how to speak up for myself,” Bailey says, crediting her newfound confidence to the instance set by the actor. “When I watched her go on set, she was like, ‘This is what I want.’ Seeing another woman come in there, command space, and own her power and know who she is as an individual was really inspiring.”

In an indication that touchdown a job in a significant movement image wasn’t a fluke, Bailey obtained an audition request for the forthcoming musical movie iteration of The Colour Purple, backed by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, whereas nonetheless taking pictures The Little Mermaid. In London, Bailey self-taped her audition for a younger Nettie —the youthful sister of the movie’s protagonist, Celie, to be performed by R&B singer and actor Fantasia Barrino who’d carried out the function on Broadway in 2007—and realized that she had landed the half shortly after filming wrapped on Mermaid.

The stress Bailey had already began to really feel about her subsequent undertaking, she says, started to wane. The film’s musical aspect was an ideal match, and the solid was notably thrilling for her.“I’m working with legends who I’m such fans of, like Fantasia and Taraji P. Henson.” Likening the set to a household reunion, Bailey appreciated the respite of getting a smaller function than in The Little Mermaid. “Also, I got to be country and talk in my Georgia, Southern accent, which was fun for me.” Bailey went into the undertaking with comprehensible nerves—“the first one is so iconic, you almost don’t want to touch something as precious as that, and the same with Mermaid,” she says*—*however is happy with the result. “I think people will be really proud of the new version.”