The makeup artist responsible for Ursula’s look in the new live-action version of “The Little Mermaid” responded to criticism that he’s not “queer” and shouldn’t have recreated the infamous villain’s look.

Peter Smith King is a British hair and makeup designer with 42 years of experience doing makeup for films, theater, and opera. He’s worked on major projects such as “The Lord of the Rings” and “Mary Poppins” before committing to transform actress Melissa McCarthy into the evil sea witch in Disney’s “Little Mermaid.”

King said he loved working on the movie set. “It was lovely. A lovely crew, lovely cast,” the makeup artist told Insider, adding that when deciding on a look for Ursula, he “discussed everything” with McCarthy.

The 1989 animated version showed Ursula with exaggerated eye makeup, inspired by the late popular drag performer Divine. Animator Rob Minkoff told Vogue that Divine inspired the original look for Ursula. 

“Divine seemed like such a great, larger than life character, and it just seemed like a funny and quirky idea to take [Ursula] and treat her more like a drag queen,” he told Vogue in a May 2023 interview. 

But some, including drag enthusiasts, were not impressed with King’s version of Ursula.

“Now when we said Ursula was inspired by a drag queen we didn’t mean one who had only been doing it for 3 months bc-,” media personality Sierra La Puerta tweeted on May 17 with a photo of the actress in full makeup.

Now when we said Ursula was inspired by a drag queen we didn’t mean one who had only been doing it for 3 months bc- https://t.co/gOODRvVT4l pic.twitter.com/BvNSf4wdp4

— Sierra La Puerta (@_SierraLaPuerta) May 17, 2023

Two former “RuPaul’s Drag Race” participants also weighed in on the look. 

“When you lie on your resume and end up with the job,” Art Simone joked.

Kerri Colby wrote that the look proved “absolutely why we should hire up and coming queer artists with a pulse on the present and a vision for the future more often. Yes I agree, this is that.”

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King said he was “offended” by the backlash from the drag community. “I find that very offensive,” he told 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 said. 

King claims he used original ideas for McCarthy.

“No, no. It was me. I didn’t really draw on anything. I played around quite a lot with different colors, different shapes, and stuff,” he told the publication. “It just was sort of Melissa and I talking and creating. So I didn’t really draw on anything at all.”

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The vice president for brand management at Target — which has come under fire and lost billions of dollars in in market capitalization after its transgender and LGBTQ merchandise prompted a boycott — also serves as treasurer of an LGBT group that has received millions of dollars in donations from Target and urges trans and nonbinary school students not to tell their parents about their “gender identity.”

Target’s vice president for brand management Carlos Saavedra, 43, was elected to the GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) executive committee as treasurer in November 2021, according to his LinkedIn page, The Daily Mail reports. GLSEN helps teachers place LGBTQ books in school libraries and hide their students’ so-called gender transitions from parents. GLSEN has sent more than 46,000 books with LGBTQ themes to several thousand schools across the nation

Target boasted last year about donating more than $2.1 million to GLSEN over the past decade, praising its mission to create “affirming, accessible, and antiracist spaces for LGBTQIA+ students.” Target promotes GLSEN on its online store.

“We are grateful to Target for their funding of this retrospective and for their support of GLSEN’s work in student leadership and educator trainings,” former GLSEN executive director Eliza Byard said in a statement several years ago about a documentary the two entities produced. “Together, we have been able to change school climates for LGBT youth.”

GLSEN has sent more than 46,000 books with LGBTQ themes to several thousand schools across the nation, including “posters and supplemental resources” for educators.

 “Staff or educators shall not disclose any information that may reveal a student’s gender identity to others, including parents or guardians and other staff, unless the student has authorized such disclosure, the information is contained in school records requested by a parent or guardian, or there is another compelling need,” one model local education agency policy posted on the GLSEN website said.

GLSEN promotes the LGBTQ movement in every facet of a school’s curriculum. “As teachers teach about data collection and relevance, they should include whether it is beneficial to include gender or biological sex, being sure to reinforce the difference between those two terms,” one article from the organization contended. “When students are creating their own surveys, if they want to include data for biological sex, teachers need to be sure they include both intersex and other as choices, and if the students want to include data for gender, a variety of choices need to be included.”

Ben Zeisloft contributed to this article.

Related: Target Donates To Group That Promotes Secret Child Gender Transitions, LGBTQ Books In Schools