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Halle Bailey was just overcome with emotion at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards after Sterling K. Brown and his wife, Ryan Michelle Bathe, paused their red carpet interview with ET’s Kevin Frazier to shower the 23-year-old actress with high praise for her portrayal in The Little Mermaid.
The sweet moment unfolded Saturday at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles as Bailey was in the middle of her interview with ET’s Nischelle Turner. Bailey had mentioned how much she admires the This Is Us star and his wife, prompting Turner to interrupt the couple’s interview to relay the sentiment.
And the feeling was mutual.
“She’s lovely,” Brown gushed. “She represented so well for us. I mean, we were streaming tears at the end of it because you were beautiful. Your soul is beautiful, your talent was radiant. If you had done it and you were bad, nobody would be messing. But you killed it!”
The adulation didn’t end there. Brown was so moved by Bailey’s performance in the live-action reimagining of the 1989 Disney classic, he channeled his inner princess spirit and gave a small performance of his own as Ariel.
Bathe then chimed in, and she, too, grew emotional over Bailey’s historic casting.
“No, ’cause you don’t understand, I watched that movie every single day from the age of like 12 to 16 and it was such a –,” Bathe trailed off as she choked back tears.
Brown joked that she and Bailey needed to keep it together and save their makeup.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see us, you know what I mean?” Bathe continued, in a scene very reminiscent of Brie Larson’s moment at the Golden Globes. “Not only was it us, but it was so you. And you brought you. And then you brought us in bringing you. And it just. It was just unspeakable joy for me.”
Bailey exclusively spoke to ET back in May about her groundbreaking role and what her casting means to a whole new generation of little girls watching Disney’s new reimagining.
“I just am really grateful to be in this position,” Bailey told ET, citing Brandy Norwood‘s Cinderella and Anika Noni Rose‘s Princess Tiana as her inspirations.
“I loved Brandy as Cinderella; she was so amazing, such a role model and inspiration and a really big kind of studying point for me as I was taking on Ariel,” Bailey shared. “I just watched how amazing she was in that role and how comfortable she was in her skin and how impactful to audiences and little girls like me who watched it. And Anika Noni Rose, who’s just outstanding. I’ve had the chance to meet her and we got to sing [The Princess and the Frog‘s] song together, ‘Almost There’ for [2022’s Disney Family Singalong] with my sister. She was always so kind! But there are these beautiful Black women pioneers who’ve done this before and been there for me to be able to say, ‘OK, I can do this.'”
The 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards is on Saturday, Feb. 24, at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET and is streaming live on Netflix from the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles. Follow along at ETonline.com for full coverage from the awards show, including red carpet arrivals, the complete winners list and more.
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