'The Little Mermaid' star Melissa McCarthy recalls feeling 'physically ill' when she once worked on a 'hostile, volatile' movie set

• "The Little Mermaid" star Melissa McCarthy recalled once working on a "hostile, volatile" movie set.
• McCarthy said the environment left her feeling "physically ill," and her "eyes were swelling up."

Disney has finally turned "The Little Mermaid" into a live-action blockbuster with Halle Bailey bringing mermaid Ariel to life over 30 years after the original animated movie.

But the other key figure in the story is villain Ursula, played by Melissa McCarthy.

The actor has been hugely successful as a comedic star over the last decade or so, with roles in movies like "Bridesmaids," "The Heat," and "Spy" making her a household name.

However, McCarthy has opened up about the difficulties she's faced on set in the past when speaking to the UK's Observer newspaper Sunday.

The actor recalled how she worked with someone who created a "volatile, hostile" environment on set, although the star didn't name the person involved, nor did she say which project she was working on at the time.

"I did work for someone once who ran such a volatile, hostile set that it made me physically ill. My eyes were swelling up, I was absorbing all of this nuttiness," she said.

McCarthy went on to say that the person responsible made other people cry on set and also fired people around her to keep her "quiet."

She added: "There were people weeping, visibly so upset by this one person. And I think that's why the manipulation worked, because to get to me, this person would fire people I loved, which kept me quiet. It was very effective."

However, McCarthy said it wasn't long before she stepped in to stop the abusive behavior.

She explained: "Then one day, I was like, 'It stops today!' I just kept saying to them, it stops, it stops. And I know now I'll never keep quiet again."

McCarthy now runs a production company called On the Day with her husband, Ben Falcone, and because of the "volatile" experience, they do a "crazy check" to gauge how nice someone is before hiring them.

"You know, we were so astounded and grateful at getting to build our own little worlds, we were like, 'We have to build the one we've always talked about, where everybody gets to have an opinion and everyone is really nice. It's going to run a lot better with no screamers or crazy egos bumbling around. Why would we risk destroying that?'" she said.