'The Little Mermaid' Makeup Artist Peter King Forced To Defend His Work After Backlash

Peter King is the one who made Ursula in The Little Mermaid pop on screen, but stars of RuPaul's Drag Race think he should have been a drag queen.

The makeup artist has been in the business for decades, but this is the first time he has had to defend himself for booking a job. King spoke with Insider about the shocking amount of hate he receives online.

"Why can't I do as good a job as a queer makeup artist?" he has been asking since the hate online started. RuPaul's Drag Race alum Art Simone accused the makeup artist of lying on his resume.

"When you lie on your resume and end up with the job," they wrote on Twitter. Fellow former contestant Denali also commented. "[This is] absolutely why we should hire up-and-coming queer artists with a pulse on the present and a vision for the future more often."

The makeup artist who has also done makeup on the set of Spider-Man: Far From Home, The Hobbit films, The Lord of The Rings series, Nanny McPhee, and so many more finds the backlash "ridiculous."

"That's ridiculous. 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." He continued. "I don't get it."

"Yes, I'm very old now, so that's fine. 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."

King is disappointed by the reaction, and it's more hurtful for him because he has been a fan of the film since the 1989 animated movie. He knows the original concept for the larger-than-life character Ursula, who Melissa McCarthy plays in the new film, was modeled after drag legend Divine.

He still doesn't think that should be a requirement to get a job as a makeup artist on a live-action film set. McCarthy also shared while promoting the film that she is a fan of drag shows and certainly took inspiration from drag queens.

"I've been going to shows since I was not supposed to be going to shows," she confessed to Entertainment Weekly. "There's a drag queen that lives in me. I'm always right on the verge of going full-time with her."

The backlash came in mid-May after the sneak peek of Melissa McCarthy's version of Ursula dropped. Some fans understood that the look wasn't even in full glam yet, and we were essentially getting a taste of what was to come with the base makeup.

"People don't get this is makeup for CGI; this is not the final product. It has to be simple for the animators to play with it with the lighting and color saturation," one fan explained.

This wasn't enough to stop fans from agreeing that the look was unexpected. Now that the film is out, people are back to focusing on the fact that Ariel, the red-headed mermaid, is played by a person of color.