10 Fascinating Stories From Ariel’s Reference Model That Made Me See “The Little Mermaid” In A Whole New Light

1) Sherri was asked to audition as Ariel’s reference model when her improv comedy troupe, The Groundlings, visited Disney Studios.

Sherri Stoner: I was really happy to be asked because I thought it would just be the coolest little job ever. I’ve been an animation geek my whole life. At that point, I wasn’t writing animation yet, and I was still primarily acting. They sent me the script, and I thought it was just fantastic. I read it, and I just thought, this is really great stuff. If I remember correctly, in the audition, they gave me a little snippet of Jodi Benson’s [Ariel’s voice actor] track and had me lip-sync to it and do some movements.

When I found out I got it, I was thrilled! I thought that it would be a job where no one would know that I did it except for me and my friends and family. I didn’t realize that the movie would become so mega-successful that people wanted more and more information about it. And people, rightfully so, were kind of fascinated by what that entailed.