The upcoming Disney+ series Olaf Presents features the Frozen franchise’s beloved snowman sidekick retelling classic Disney films. Actor Josh Gad famously voices Olaf in the films and will be reprising his role for the series.
While actors and voice actors alike often truly embrace their characters, Gad seems to have gone above and beyond while bringing Olaf to life in Olaf Presents. At a press conference for the series, the actor talked about his recording experience:
“What I love to do is just play and run free, which I’m sure is what [directors] like the least. But they really, you know, gave me the opportunity to just go crazy and [Director Hyrum Osmond] from day one would just let the mic roll and allow me [to do that]. And at first I was recording it all from home–I was my own sound engineer throughout. And it was just one of those things where it was like 45 minutes for a one minute short of just me being an idiot.”
Josh Gad
Even though he was given plenty of leeway in how he went about voicing Olaf for the series, he apparently also had to fight for some of his performances. Gad explained:
“There were definitely a lot of moments where [Producer Jennifer Newfield] and Hyrum said ‘No, Josh. No, no, no.’ My favorite moments [were] early on figuring out what the boundaries were…I was like, oh, no, I’m going to Bob Iger with this. I’m going to the shareholders with this.”
Josh Gad
Olaf and Gad seem to be one of those rare castings where they not only seem inseparable, but the actor has the ability to influence the character in major ways outside of the writing process. Director Hyrum Osmond recognized that many of the choices as to what elements to bring into each episode “came down to we had Josh kind of just say it all.”
Olaf Presents is now streaming on Disney+.
