The role went to Melissa McCarthy, whom Lizzo met during a taping of Adele’s “One Night Only” concert.
The pop star told Variety, “She was like, ‘Hi, I’m Melissa,’ and I was like, ‘Hi, I’m Melissa [her real name]. And I also auditioned for Ursula.’ And she was like, ‘Well, why the hell did I get the part?’ which is a classic Melissa McCarthy thing to say. And then, I was like, ‘Girl, because my audition was terrible.’ … My audition wasn’t terrible. Sometimes, I like to make jokes. My audition was good. You can ask Disney. I don’t want to talk too much about it. The singing was great. I’ll just say that.”