Little Mermaid's Ursula Was Inspired By The Most Unexpected Drag Queen Icon

Ursula is the main antagonist in The Little Mermaid. She makes deals with the unfortunate mermaids, promising to make their dreams come true.

However, Ursula's deals are secretly designed to further her own ambitions and bring misery to everyone.

Ursula is loosely based on the unnamed sea witch from Hans Christian Andersen's original fairy tale, with her characterization inspired by drag queen Divine.

Ursula's fiery self-confidence and theatricality were critically acclaimed and influenced later Disney villains.

Actress Melissa McCarthy, who plays the villain in the new adaptation, admitted that she felt it was important to show this side of Ursula's personality and honor her drag queen roots – the actress said that she "100 percent" used drag as an influence:

"There's a drag queen that lives in me. I'm always right on the verge of going full-time with her."

Melissa herself has a drag queen background that helped her bring Ursula to life on screen. The actress performed as the drag persona in clubs under the pseudonym Miss Y.

The Ursula's prototype Divine (real name Harris Glenn Milstead) is best known for her role in the 1988 musical Hairspray.

This movie will be a real breakthrough for her: she will be known outside the underground cinema and drag shows, where she had been successfully performing for many years in a row.

In the late 70s, Divine also began a singing career, and many of her songs became popular in nightclubs in the US and Europe. In 1988, after rehearsing for another new movie, Harris died of a heart attack in his hotel room.

He was only 42 years old. He never got to see his last movie, nor did he see Disney's The Little Mermaid with Ursula, who was inspired by his alter ego. But the legacy of the most famous drag queen lives on today.

Source: Entertainment Weekly