Many “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alums have slammed “The Little Mermaid” remake for not hiring a queer makeup artist for Ursula — prompting Peter King to defend his work on movie star Melissa McCarthy.
The Oscar winner called recent backlash “ridiculous” and “very offensive” while speaking to Insider Friday.
“Why can’t I do as good a job as a queer makeup artist?” he asked the outlet.
“That’s trying to claim it and that’s fine, if that’s what they wanna do, but don’t put people down because they’re not what they want it to be,” King continued.
He added that he “personally [doesn’t] get” the criticism – which began after a Twitter video of McCarthy being made into the villain went viral.
“Yes, I’m very old now, so that’s fine,” he said. “I get that too, but you know, a makeup artist or makeup designer could design makeup. They don’t have to have an attachment to the nature of what they’re doing.”
In the original Disney movie, which came out in 1989, Ursula was notably modeled after drag legend Divine.
Composer Alan Menken confirmed the character’s inspiration in an April Entertainment Weekly interview.
Meanwhile, McCarthy said she “100 percent” researched drag queens while preparing for the role in the new film, which came out on May 26.
“I’m a huge, huge fan of drag shows and the whole art of it and the entertainment of it,” the actress gushed last month. “I’ve been going to shows since I was not supposed to be going to shows.”
The 52-year-old joked, “There’s a drag queen that lives in me. I’m always right on the verge of going full-time with her.”
Art Simone, Kerri Colby and more drag queens, however, have slammed the look King designed for McCarthy.
“When you lie on your resume and end up with the job,” the former tweeted earlier this month, while the latter pushed for “up and coming” LBBTQ+ artists with “a pulse on the present and a vision for the future.”
