Disney legend Jodi Benson - best known for her role as Ariel in the 1989 animated classic "The Little Mermaid" - held a Q&A panel at FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention last weekend. Throughout the 45-minute session, Benson reminisced on her career as a voice actress and even treated fans in attendance to a full performance of "Part of Your World."
One of the highlights of the panel came when a school teacher asked Benson what advice she would give to the young girl who will be playing Ariel in their upcoming production of "The Little Mermaid." Here's what Benson had to say:
Well, first of all, she needs to have fun, and she needs to be real and authentic and vulnerable. It’s not like you’re acting. Ariel just is. I mean, she’s just a regular 16-year-old girl who just wants something more. It’s a really sweet, sweet story, so I think as long as she’s just being real and doesn’t feel like she has to perform or act something out, it’s going to be beautiful. You need to fall in love with Ariel, right at the very first second and then root for her throughout the whole film, the whole stage show.
[Panel moderator: They didn’t audition you for that particular role.]
No, and that was really weird because I’m only used to auditioning for things. No one’s ever called up and said, “Hey, do you want this job?” I mean, it just doesn’t happen in the theater world. After “Mermaid,” I got a call first from Don Bluth Studios, saying, “Hey, do you want to do ‘Thumbellina’ with Barry Mannilow?” And I’m like, “Well, yeah! Sure, but do you want me to come in and audition?” They’re like, “Nah, you’re good! It’s good. You’re great.” […] And then [the opportunity] came up for Barbie in “Toy Story” [and] I got a call from Pixar, going, “We’d like you to come in and record the voice of Barbie in ‘Toy Story 2.’” I was like, “Great! I’ll be ready for an audition. Do you have some words or lines?” [Pixar said], “Nah, we’re good. We know Barbie’s in there somewhere. We saw Ariel, we loved you, and she lives in there. We’ll figure her out.”
So we played with a box of Barbies – the producer and the directors literally played with a box of Barbies – and we started to talk to each other. They were talking to me. They looked really silly, as grown men going [imitates high-pitched voice] “Hi! How are you?” […] We did this Barbie thing and then kind of came up with it and started to record it. I had to physically act it out – because I’m a theater person, I had to act everything out, physically, which is very strange in a studio.
[…] Mattel was there, and this was a big deal because Barbie had never had a voice before, so [they were] explaining this to me and I’m like, “Excuse me, but I actually did the voice of Barbie in a workout Claymation video in 1988 or ’89.” You could see the executive looking at me and [imitates nervous laughter] “I knew that!” I didn’t want to embarrass her, but I just said, “Actually, you know, I did give Barbie a voice. I don’t know – do you want that voice for Barbie?” She said, “No, we’ll discover a new voice.” …It’s the same voice from the video. [Audience laughs] If you put them side by side, you’d be like, “Yep, that’s Jodi.”
Barbie was super fun. She was supposed to be in the original, but Mattel was like, “No, we’re not going to have Barbie in an animated cartoon.” And then they saw how well it did, financially. [Audience laughs] “Toy Story” was a big old hit, and then Mattel was like, “Hey! What’s it look like for ‘Toy Story 2’? Maybe Barbie can come back. Is she invited back?”
Money talks. Money talks.
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