Lizzo Auditioned For ‘Little Mermaid’: ‘I Was Down To Make Ursula A THOT’

The live-action movie of The Little Mermaid debuts next year, but unfortunately it will not have Lizzo star as the villainous sea witch, Ursula. Instead, Melissa McCarthy landed the role over Lizzo, who used social media to pitch herself for the role. One viral video of Lizzo dressed as Ursula, shows the Grammy winner belting the film’s classic song “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” generating over 3 million views on Twitter. As part of her new Variety cover story, Lizzo reflected on her unsuccessful campaign.

“Everyone knows I auditioned for Ursula in [Disney’s upcoming live-action] The Little Mermaid, and I didn’t get it. But you know, I’m fine as hell,” Lizzo said. “That has nothing to do with Ursula, but I was down to make Ursula a THOT, shaking a--.”

Lizzo, 33, ended up running into McCarthy, 51, during the taping of Adele’s One Night Only CBS concert special in Los Angeles, and the two women bonded over their shared Ursula history. “She was like, ‘Hi, I’m Melissa,'” Lizzo said. “And I was like, ‘Hi, I’m Melissa. [her full name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson]. And I also auditioned for Ursula.’ And she was like, ‘Well, why the hell did I get the part?,’ which is a classic Melissa McCarthy thing to say. And then I was like, ‘Girl, because my audition was terrible.’ And I say that as Tyler Perry walks by. And I was like — ruined my chances there. And then she goes, ‘This is my daughter Vivian.’ And I’m like, ‘Get out of here, because my name is Melissa Viviane.’ We were looking at each other like, ‘What the hell is going on?'”

Lizzo clarified to Variety that her audition actually wasn't terrible, “Sometimes I like to make jokes. My audition was good. You can ask Disney. I don’t want to talk too much about it. The singing was great. I’ll just say that.”

While she won’t appear in The Little Mermaid, Lizzo has several new projects on the horizon such as the Amazon reality series Watch Out for the Big Grrrls and her love-inspired new album.