With a high bar set by her predecessor, The Little Mermaid star Awkwafina shares how she is making her version of Scuttle her own. The upcoming film marks the latest live-action Disney remake, itself loosely based on the 19th century Danish fairy tale about the mermaid daughter of King Triton who falls in love with a human and trades her voice to a sea witch in exchange for legs in order to be part of his world. Grown-ish alum Halle Bailey is leading the cast of The Little Mermaid alongside Jonah Hauer-King, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, and Melissa McCarthy.
During a recent exclusive interview with Screen Rant for the horror-comedy Renfield, Awkwafina opened up about her work on the upcoming The Little Mermaid remake. When asked about how she approached voicing Ariel's iconic companion Scuttle, the star quickly noted she had no interest in trying to duplicate Buddy Hackett's "memorable" original performance, but instead sought to make the character her own. See what Awkwafina said below:
Aw, man. Buddy Hackett’s performance in the original is so good and so memorable, and I think you can’t duplicate that performance. The Scuttle that we’ve grown up with is Scuttle, but what I definitely did want to incorporate was that Scuttle is a nosybody, she’s a meddler and she’s also very neurotic, so I feel like those came easy. It was so fun to play Scuttle.
What To Expect From Live-Action The Little Mermaid's Animal Characters
As Awkwafina mentions, Hackett's performance as Scuttle in the original The Little Mermaid remains one of the most memorable supporting turns alongside that of Samuel E. Wright's Sebastian and Pat Carroll's Ursula. While some may be more keen for something close to the original voice, attempting to recreate an iconic character is something that risks disappointing fans should it not live up to their expectations.
Though Awkwafina is bringing her own take to Scuttle, the most recent The Little Mermaid trailer confirmed both that Daveed Diggs' Sebastian would be retaining the Jamaican accent Wright employed in the original film. With Diggs' musical background, it's also known he will be reteaming with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda for new music on the live-action remake, including a potential rap akin to those featured in the historical musical.
The one animal character who still has yet to get much focus in the marketing for the live-action The Little Mermaid remake is that of Tremblay's Flounder, having only briefly been spotted in the most recent trailer. Considering he is the most important of Ariel's undersea friends, it's surprising he hasn't gotten much screen time yet, though with over a month remaining until it hits theaters, there's plenty of time to learn more about how the remake will adapt the character.
