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Political commentator Matt Walsh recently came under fire for saying that casting the African-American actress Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid was “scientifically” inaccurate.
During an episode of The Matt Walsh Show, the host spoke about the trailer for the new Disney live action remake and said:
“With The Little Mermaid, can we just mention that, from a scientific perspective, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have someone with darker skin who lives deep in the ocean.”
He further claimed that any individual playing the role of Ariel in The Little Mermaid should be “translucent”:
“If anything, not only should The Little Mermaid be pale, she should actually be translucent... look at deep sea creatures they're like translucent. They have no kind of pigmentation whatsoever. And they're just like these horrifying skeletons floating around in the ocean.”
Walsh further added:
“That's what The Little Mermaid should look like, she should be totally pale and skeletal where you can see her skull through her face, and that would actually be a version of The Little Mermaid I would watch.”
A clip of Walsh’s statement shared by Media Matters’ Jason Campbell immediately went viral online and sparked major backlash against the commentator.
Everything to know about Matt Walsh
Matt Walsh is an American political commentator, writer and columnist for The Daily Wire. He is also the host of a podcast titled The Matt Walsh Show. He also appeared in The Daily Wire documentary What Is a Woman?
He was born on June 18, 1986, and has reportedly avoided attending college. Walsh began his career as an AM radio show host in Delaware before joining NewsRadio 630 WLAP in Kentucky in 2012. He started contributing to The Blaze TV in 2014 and also wrote for Huffpost.
Walsh joined The Daily Wire in 2017 and has since appeared on shows like Fox and Friends, Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Ingraham Angle and Dr. Phil.
He is also the author of four books titled What Is a Woman?: One Man's Journey to Answer the Question of a Generation (2022), Johnny the Walrus (2022), Church of Cowards: A Wake-Up Call to Complacent Christians (2020), and The Unholy Trinity: Blocking the Left's Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender (2017).
Matt Walsh has consistently found himself in the middle of controversies over his offensive remarks about the transgender community. His Twitter account was suspended earlier this year for violating the policies of hateful content.
On a personal front, Walsh is married to Alissa Walsh. The couple have six children together and reportedly live in Nashville, Tennessee.
Twitter slams Matt Walsh for controversial remarks on Halle Bailey’s casting in The Little Mermaid
Disney’s upcoming live action film The Little Mermaid has continued to make headlines ever since the release of the trailer featuring Halle Bailey.
While several have praised the casting of an African-American actress for the role of Ariel, some have advocated the idea of having a Caucasian star for the character.
More recently, Matt Walsh made some controversial remarks about Bailey’s casting and said that the move was “scientifically” not accurate. His comments left several people disappointed and many took to Twitter to slam Walsh for his statement:
As reactions continued to pour in online, CNN digital senior entertainment writer Lisa France also called out Walsh for while speaking to co-reporter Brianna Keilar. She said:
“Racism is real, unfortunately, and people get so offended. Those who say we always try to make things about race, people make it about race when they’re online and they’re trying to debate the fact that, ‘Oh, she couldn’t have darker skin because she’s a mermaid and she’s under the water and the sun wouldn’t be able to reach her.’ That’s about race.”
France also shared that she hopes to see a future world that would be free of racism:
“I just wish people would keep the same energy for racism as they do when they get called out about racism. That would be I want to be a part of that world actually.”
Matt Walsh also responded to the sharp criticism by saying that his statements about The Little Mermaid casting were a joke:
“I said Ariel should be played by someone with translucent skin like a real deep sea fish and thousands of Leftists took me seriously and are calling me racist because of it.”
He continued:
“I'm actually being accused of harboring racial favoritism for translucent people. I love it. This is great.”
Despite the major backlash, Walsh continued to maintain his stance and retweeted mocked images of a “translucent” mermaid.
