Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid is (finally) almost here, which means audiences will finally get to see the all-star cast led by Halle Bailey bring their own takes to the iconic animated characters that we’ve loved for over 30 years. As many of the first reactions to The Little Mermaid tour Daveed Diggs as a standout with his version of Sebastian, CinemaBlend sat down with the Hamilton icon about playing the role.
Sebastian is such a key character to Disney’s The Little Mermaid, especially considering the crab sings two major musical numbers with “Under the Sea” and “Kiss The Girl.” During our interview with Daveed Diggs (in the video above), the talented singer and actor spoke about making his own mark on the beloved character. In his words:
My hope was that Under the Sea felt – the orchestration really does all the work for it, like the way it's orchestrated in this version is so gorgeous – but I was hoping that particularly the end of it when Sebastian's really going for it, we could actually get that sort of Calypso feel. Calypso is mostly extemporaneous music traditionally, so I wanted it to feel like he was improvising and just having a great time. Hopefully it got there for most people. But, I do kind of love that recording. And then ‘Kiss the Girl’. That scene is so good in the movie. I was really happy with how both of those songs came out, which is good because I was so terrified to do them.
The original voice of Sebastian, the late Samuel E. Wright, certainly didn’t make Diggs an easy act to follow considering how absolutely iconic those original tunes are to our pop culture. As the original Hamilton cast member has spoken about before, he ended up working harder on Sebastian than any other role in his life due to the nerves to bring The Little Mermaid justice.
Now that the movie is finished and soon ready to reach wide audiences, Diggs shared that he is proud of the work he did on the film especially in terms of how he could inject more calypso, which is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the 17th century. Check out a segment of “Under The Sea” via Walt Disney Studios’ YouTube:
Release Date: May 26, 2023
Directed By: Rob Marshall
Written By: David Magee
Starring: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Noma Dumezweni, Javier Bardem and Melissa McCarthy
Rating: PG for action/peril and some scary images
Runtime: 135 minutes
In anticipation for the role, Diggs went to Jamaica to research the role of Sebastian and worked with voice coaches to get the Caribbean accent right. As the Hamilton star shared with us, he was “terrified” to take on the Disney character, but he certainly worked very hard behind the scenes to bring him to life in photo-realistic live action.
Daveed Diggs re-teamed with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and original The Little Mermaid composer Alan Menken on the music for the latest of upcoming Disney movies. Diggs’ Sebastian even gets an additional song with “Scuttlebutt,” which he joins Awkwafina’s Scuttle on. The new number brings Miranda’s classic rap stylings to The Little Mermaid. Additionally, Menken and Miranda worked together on a new solo for Ariel called “For The First Time” and Prince Eric’s own song called “Wild Uncharted Waters.”
The Little Mermaid is heading to theaters on May 26 with box office predictions set to rival the billion dollar success of 2019’s Aladdin.
