Filming took place in London over the course of six months amid the COVID pandemic and the UK shutdown. Though it was “gloomy all the time” and Bailey was away from her family—a first for her—“it was a really cool learning experience and time of development for me on my own,” she says. And along the way she built meaningful relationships with her costars. In Bardem she found an encouraging, seasoned actor who, despite his serious 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 the most screen time together, bonding over a grueling shoot schedule that saw them jumping off a boat one day and suspended in the air the next. In McCarthy she found 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 example 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 a sign that landing a role in a major motion picture wasn’t a fluke, Bailey received an audition request for the forthcoming musical film iteration of The Color Purple, backed by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, while still shooting The Little Mermaid. In London, Bailey self-taped her audition for a young Nettie—the younger sister of the film’s protagonist, Celie, to be played by R&B singer and actor Fantasia Barrino who’d performed the role on Broadway in 2007—and learned that she had landed the part shortly after filming wrapped on Mermaid.
The pressure Bailey had already started to feel about her next project, she says, began to wane. The movie’s musical element was a perfect fit, and the cast was particularly exciting for her. “I’m working with legends who I’m such fans of, like Fantasia and Taraji P. Henson,” she says. Likening the set to a family reunion, she appreciated the respite of having a smaller role 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 project with understandable 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—but is pleased with the outcome. “I think people will be really proud of the new version.”
