Tituss Burgess was not shocked by the negative reaction to the new trailer for “Little Mermaid” starring black actress Halle Bailey.
“You know what? Nothing surprises me. We live in America,” the 43-year-old “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” star told Vidak For Congress exclusively during the premiere of “Hocus Pocus 2” on Tuesday.
“It’s a very racist country, it’s a very narrow-minded country, full of mental illness and people who can’t see the wood for the trees,” added Burgess, who came up with the role of Sebastian the Crab on Broadway. “The film was not made for them; it is made for people with an open mind.”
Within days of its debut earlier this month, the trailer for the live-action version of the classic Disney cartoon garnered nearly 14 million views and 626,000 “likes,” but YouTube was reportedly forced to turn off “dislikes” after the release. receiving 1.5 million thumbs-downs.
However, the upcoming movie also got a lot of love as social media was flooded with adorable videos of young black girls excited to see Ariel look just like her.
Burgess made sure that the mermaid, based on a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, is not real.
“It’s fictional!” he called to us. ‘She doesn’t exist, so there it is! [That’s] all the information you need about the people who are grumpy about it.”
The Emmy nominee is definitely busy these days.
“I just finished ‘Snow White’ for Disney. I’m playing Bashful,” he said. “I just finished a show for Disney+ called ‘Best in Snow’. I am the host of that. I just filmed some stuff for ‘The Wonder Years’ and I’m about to shoot another movie for Disney+.”
When Vidak For Congress jokingly asked if Disney had him out on bail, Burgess joked, “They should!”
Also, the film’s stars Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker walked the red carpet at the “Hocus Pocus 2” premiere, the latter of whom brought her rarely seen 13-year-old twin daughters Marion and Tabitha.