Watch Disney's original Little Mermaid Ariel voice actress and live-action star Halle Bailey embrace above the sea

Darling, it's better when icons support icons.

During a sweet moment Monday at Disney's premiere of The Little Mermaid live-action remake, original Little Mermaid actress Jodi Benson — who voiced Ariel in the studio's 1989 classic — emotionally embraced her successor, Halle Bailey, outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

"We're all crying here," the Disney Studios TikTok account wrote as it shared a video of the pair coming together at the event.

Benson and Bailey exchanged a few quick words while holding hands before embracing and posing for photographs.

When asked by Entertainment Tonight if she gave any advice to Bailey as she prepared to star in director Rob Marshall's 2023 adaptation of a mermaid who falls in love with a human, Benson at first laughed the question off.

"She doesn't need any advice from me!" Benson joked. "She's brilliant. I did get to meet her a few times and chat with her and just tell her how proud I was of her, and I love that she has a purity of heart and a pure spirit, and you can see that vulnerability and that childlike bravery and courage coming through, and it's beautiful. I'm so thrilled for her and I'm so proud of her."

Bailey also shared a message to people who traditionally haven't seen themselves represented in the lineage of Disney princesses of the past, as she marks the first Black actress to portray Ariel in a major studio production of the 1837 Hans Christian Andersen novel.

The 23-year-old Chloe x Halle singer first credited The Princess and the Frog actress Anika Noni Rose and 1997's live-action Cinderella star Brandy as creating the "blueprint" for her to join The Little Mermaid, and spoke to people who might find inspiration in her portrayal of Ariel as well.

"I hope that they just know that they are worthy," she told PEOPLE. "We deserve to be in these spaces."

The Little Mermaid — also starring Melissa McCarthy as Ursula — is in theaters on May 23.

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