Ursula's makeup is meant to look 'bad' and uneven, according to 'The Little Mermaid' makeup artist

• Makeup artist Peter Swords King recently spoke with Allure about his work on "The Little Mermaid."
• He said Ursula's makeup was meant to look "bad" with uneven eyebrows, as if she'd done it herself.

When makeup artist Peter Swords King was conceptualizing Ursula's look for the latest adaption of "The Little Mermaid," he had an unconventional idea.

"We thought it would be funny if her makeup was bad and that she'd done it herself," the Oscar and BAFTA-winning artist told journalist Kirbie Johnson as part of an interview for Allure.

At first, the makeup team experimented with Melissa McCarthy wearing smudged lipstick and messy eyebrows, but the result was "too bad," he said. So instead, they focused on raising the character's eyebrows slightly in different directions.

"If you look at her eyebrows, they're not perfectly identical," King said. "No one's eyebrows are perfectly identical unless they're plucked or threaded to an inch. I don't like super-manicured eyebrows. It starts looking a bit forced."

While the original, animated Ursula was inspired by a drag queen named Divine, according to the film's animators, McCarthy's version of the character was styled differently.

Because the character is a villain, the makeup artist told Johnson that he didn't want McCarthy to look like a drag queen. Instead, he followed drag makeup techniques like using a glue stick to shape McCarthy's brows.

"I wanted it to still be Melissa, and I think she liked the fact that it was still her, so we could see it was her," King said.

Still, the decision caused some controversy, with some fans arguing that a queer makeup artist should have been hired in King's place to work on a character that was originally inspired by the queer community — something King says he doesn't understand.

"I find that very offensive," King said in a recent interview with Insider. "Why can't I do as good a job as a queer makeup artist?"

"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 added.

While speaking with Insider, King noted that he "didn't really draw on anything" or recreate any part of the original character for Ursula's live-action look.

But while speaking with Allure, he noted that he was fond of the animated version's 1950s-esque cocktail dress.

"I [told Melissa], 'If this was not a Disney film, you would have a cigarette in one hand and a martini glass in the other,'" he said.