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Ariel was almost blonde and other The Little Mermaid secrets

© Provided by TIME Inc. Ariel was almost blonde and other 'The Little Mermaid' secrets

Imagine if you will, a mermaid swimming under the sea alongside her fish friend Flounder to uncover the treasures of a human world from a shipwreck — only instead of the vibrant, red-headed Ariel we know and love, she’s blonde!

It almost happened, according to Jodi Benson, who gave voice to Ariel in the original 1989 Disney film The Little Mermaid and various sequels and television series since. The film celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and Disney is releasing a new Disney Signature Collection Blu-ray packed with bonus features in honor of the milestone.

“I remember the first thumbnail sketches,” Benson tells EW of the first iterations of Ariel. “She had blonde hair. She looked like one of the exaggerated faces from [the] Peter Pan era. She looked a little bit glamorous and a little bit mature to me.”

Those were some of the earliest concepts for Ariel, and Benson says the look of the character shifted a great deal once she came onboard with animator Glen Keane adjusting to her performance and sound. “He was like, ‘The voice is what gives the character life,'” Benson recalls Keane saying. “‘She’s just on the page right now, but when you started to speak, she came alive and now I can see her and get a sense of who she is.'”

Benson doesn’t know exactly where the idea for Ariel to have red hair came from but that it was a part of her evolution overall. “I was like, ‘Oh, she’s blonde. Cinderella was blonde, and Sleeping Beauty is kind of auburn-y colored, blonde-ish…That’s interesting we’re going to do another blonde.’ Then it started to evolve,” she explains. “I remember being like, ‘Woah, she’ll be the first red-headed Disney princess, wow, that’s big!’ If we’re going to make that bold statement, then we need to just jump in.”

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When Benson signed on to The Little Mermaid, she had never done voiceover work before. She was recruited to audition by lyricist Howard Ashman after appearing on Broadway in Smile, which he wrote and directed. Ashman was a producer on the film, launching what would become an iconic partnership with Disney before his untimely death from complications from AIDS in 1991.

For Benson, it was a bit of learning curve. “I was acting it out as if I were onstage and I’m also Italian — I use my hands — so I kept hitting the microphone. I was driving the engineers crazy,” she giggles, Ariel’s bubbly laugh still instantly recognizable.

Ultimately, it was Ashman’s tutelage and patience (and ability to wear many hats) that helped her find Ariel’s voice. “Ron [Clements] and John [Musker], our directors, were so kind to let Howard come in the booth and record with me,” she explains. “He played all the parts. Because he knew them better than anybody else. Especially when it comes to the vocals. He could play all the parts and sing all the parts and interpret all the lyrics so beautifully. We figured out who Ariel was between Howard’s leading and me following and just trying to grasp what it was he was wanting me to get from the character.”

Benson did have one significant factor in common with Ariel, however — an affinity for water. She says she’s been a swimmer her entire life and grew up with an indoor swimming pool in Illinois, which was quite rare. “We moved to a house when I was four that had an indoor pool. It was so fun. I started swimming when I was four, so that was a no brainer,” she laughs. “I felt really comfortable making that connection with Ariel because I did grow up swimming and near the water and loved it.”

At the time that production began on the film, it had been years since Disney animation had a feature film hit on a large scale, but Benson says it felt like business as usual for her. “Having just worked with Howard on a Broadway show, it was not foreign,” she explains. “It was the norm — we all got together; we did a table read; we sat around in a circle with Howard and [composer] Alan [Menken] at the piano singing all the parts. I didn’t realize this was something different. That Disney had not participated in this type of creation process before. But it was familiar to me coming from Broadway.”

She never felt any pressure or expectation for the film to revitalize the animation department, though it ultimately did, kickstarting what is often called the Disney renaissance. However, she says she was cognizant that things seemed “weird” with the animators not on the Disney lot, but in trailers offsite in Burbank.

“I just remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, what would Walt think about all of this?'” she recalls. “His foundation of the studio is animation, and that’s so sad. But I did not put all of that together thinking that our film was going to make this huge change forever. I didn’t have a clue to that.”

Thirty years later, Benson is still best-known for voicing Ariel, regularly making appearances at Disney events and concerts, as well as continuing to voice the character (most recently in 2018’s Ralph Breaks the Internet). When she speaks of her connection to Disney and the little mermaid that changed everything, it’s clear there’s still a deep affection there.

One thing, however, stands out above the others when it comes to being associated with Ariel. “I’m proud of her tenacious spirit. I love the fact that she keeps knocking on doors even when they’re closed. She keeps pushing forward without ever giving up,” Benson muses. “I have that tenacity in me. I feel like I brought that to the character by growing up in a small town and wanting to be a Broadway performer having never seen a Broadway show. [I didn’t know] what the heck I was talking about, but I was tenacious.”

Ariel has been tenacious indeed — being an iconic part of the Disney canon for three decades and counting.

Watch the clip above for more on the making of the film. The Little Mermaid Disney Signature Collection edition is available on digital now and on Blu-ray Feb. 26.

Bleached Blonde and Jet Black Are Fall 2019's Hottest Hair Colors, According to Prada

Often when we're talking about wild hair color backstage at fashion week, it's of the ROGYBIV variety. Take, for instance, the cotton candy hues at Marc Jacobs last season, or the colorful streaks we saw at Mary Katrantzou in London a few days ago. But for Prada's fall 2019 show in Milan, hairstylist Guido and colorist Josh Woods proposed a different kind of extreme hair-color trend for the season: pale, pale blonde and inky, jet black.

The high-contrast hues accentuated the more "extreme side of the Prada women," Guido explained, who, along with designer Miuccia Prada, chose a handful of models to receive hair-color transformations before the show. Nine of those models had their newly onyx-colored hair cut into graphic bobs — some bluntly cut to chin length, others featuring an undercut — giving a slight nod to the beauty of the 1920s. “They’re all classic bobs with shaping around the face,” he explained. “There are no bangs and no layers – it’s a more solid shape. It’s not rock and roll, but it’s still cool," said Guido.

Composite: Getty Images

Around 11 other models received hair-color transformations before the show, most of them a crisp, bright shade of blonde. In addition to dyeing their natural hair, Woods also colored 22-inch wefts, a process that took him several days. These were then secured into the models' own hair backstage, slicked, and woven into two, very long braids.

Composite: Getty Images

To get the hip-grazing braids as smooth as glass, Guido parted the hair down the middle and sprayed Redken’s Forceful 23 Hairspray throughout to keep the hairline clean and the hair tight against the head for added severity. He then worked Redken Dry Shampoo Paste 05 throughout the ends of the hair for extra hold and to control flyaways as he plaited down to the ends.

Getty Images

Peppered throughout were a handful of models — like Gigi Hadid and Cara Delevingne (shown below) — wearing simple, low ponytails in juxtaposition to the long braids and extreme haircuts. “It’s a move subversive idea of beauty at Prada,” Guido said of the overall vibe of the show's beauty look.

Composite: Getty Images

With such focus on the hair, makeup artist Pat McGrath kept things simple, with bleached brows, clean skin, and a few dabs of her Skin Fetish Highlighter & Balm Duo on the cheekbones for good, glowy measure.

For more of Allure's backstage beauty coverage, keep reading:

-London Fashion Week Fall 2019: The Best Hair and Makeup From the Runways

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Kylie Jenner Makes Waves With a Gorgeous Blonde Pixie on Paper Magazine

There's almost no color or style hair chameleon Kylie Jenner hasn't tried, most often with wigs. But lately, she seems to be taking a break from the wild and crazy colors. OK, it hasn't been that long. She rocked a silver bob back in November and sky-blue long hair in January. But since then, Jenner's had her natural dark strands with extensions for some time and we're getting pretty used to seeing them. That's why today when her Paper magazine cover debuted, we were surprised to see a total transformation. The star has a 1980s-inspired white-blonde pixie. Chunky gold hoops complete the '80s vibe.

Of course, this isn't the first time Jenner has tried a pixie cut. Remember when she wore a dark brown one that made her look exactly like her mom, Kris? Plus we know how much she loves a blonde moment. It's not a huge leap to think a blonde pixie cut would look great on her and, in fact, it does. Of course, this transformation is a wig and Jenner rocks others inside the mag, including a very short blonde bob with bangs, hip-length blonde hair, and golden-blonde waves.

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Jenner's hair isn't the only thing that has people talking. When asked about plastic surgery, she tells Paper she hasn't done anything to her face other than add fillers.

"People think I fully went under the knife and completely reconstructed my face, which is completely false," she says. "I'm terrified! I would never. They don't understand what good hair and makeup and, like, fillers, can really do...It's fillers. I'm not denying that."

Read the whole interview and peep the rest of the photos in Paper magazine.

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