I Was Serenaded By Jodi Benson, voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid! {Q&A}

Disney covered my travel expenses for the #LittleMermaidEvent & #DisneyPlanesPremiere event. All opinions are my own.

Last month, a dream I’d had for my entire life came true- I met The Little Mermaid! I could not believe that I had the honor of meeting the actress who gave life to such an important character of my childhood &I was completely star struck.

Jodi took some time to meet with the bloggers at the #LittleMermaidEvent & we even got to do a couple of Q&A sessions with her! First we did an interview with her alongside Ron Clements & John Musker {read their interview here} & then we were broken off into groups and taken to a small room to conduct the interview. It was a nice, intimate setting that allowed us to ask her all kinds of questions that we were just dying to know!

Q: Was there any part of the scene or any part of the movie that you would have liked to have changed? That maybe you said, how about we do this instead? Or were you in a situation where you kind of followed through?

Jodi: Well I was in situation where it was the first time I’d ever done anything like this. And so, you just trust the geniuses you’re working with. And with Howard Ashman, and Ron, and John, and, oh my gosh, Helen- I mean, all of these geniuses- you know you’re in good hands. So no, I wouldn’t change a thing. There’s certain passes and takes of lines that they would take that I’d kind of look at Howard afterwards like, ‘Why did you take that?’ You know, and, ‘That was kind of pitchy,” and he’d say because, you know, we’re not looking for a perfect scene performance. I was really looking for the part of the particular versus of the song or the phrase. And so, I really trusted them.

Q: Would you give up your voice for love?

Jodi: Yes, I would. It would be really hard, because singing is such a huge part of my life and the way that I communicate that, yes, for my husband I would.

Q: So you believe in true love?

Jodi: Yes, yes. Well I’ve been with my husband- I think we’re coming up on 30. My 30 year anniversary will be next May. So, yes, I would give it up.

Q: Has he asked you to sing all the time too?

Jodi: Well actually we sing a lot together. We’re singing at a concert on Friday night in Maine together. I’m grabbing him up on stage and the kids are going to perform with me as well. So we’re going to have a little family concert at private home and that. Yeah, there’s a lot of music in our house. A lot of singing.

{Read on to see what Jodi’s kids think of having a mermaid for a Mom, how she’s made an impact on kids in need, and for a video of her serenading us with “Part of Your World”!}

Q: Did you sing any of the Ariel songs {for your children}?

Jodi: My son didn’t really want me to sing Ariel because that meant that mommy was working and he had just wanted, you know, mommy for mommy.

Q: I have a little girl and she likes singing, what would you recommend for getting her started just professionally with singing?

Jodi: I would say for every child that has a passion for singing, to do it in any way, shape, or form they can. Whether it’s at home, whether it’s at church, whether it’s in your community choir. I mean, the more you do it, the more you can figure out if this is what you really love to do. You just don’t want to have any regrets when you’re older, you know, regretting the fact that you may have not pursued something that was right for you. So I think for me, coming from a small town, without thinking, oh my goodness, I’d never be able to do this. But in my heart it just felt like I needed to give it a try. So I would encourage yours to sing in every way, shape, and form.

Q: What do your kids think of Mom as Ariel or your Disney legacy?

Jodi: Like I said, at the beginning for both of them, my son was three when I kind of showed the movie and I stood next to the screen. And while the movie was running I was singing along with it. And that was just really hard for me, because that meant that mommy wasn’t his mommy. It was like, Ariel wasn’t his mommy. So then when that went on, I couldn’t sing in public. It was, “No mommy, no sing, no sing.” And so, I would just sing privately for him at home, at bed time. But then when I would sing outside, he’d cover up his ears and he didn’t want to be around it because it was like sharing a part of me that only belonged to him.

My daughter was different, she was totally onboard with all of that. And of course, now they love it, they love everything Disney. And they love my job and they’re so proud to tell their friends, that’s my mom.

Q: Do you find that at a certain age group that’s like fans of you the most?

Jodi: That’s what so cool about the re-releases because now you’re going to share that with your generation. That’s kind of what the seven-to-ten year slot of time is that we do these re-releases- it’s for the next generation of children, so that they can experience it for the first time just like you did. But the fans are of all ages. Especially grandparents. You know, now its grandparents watching their grandchildren experience it. And they saw their daughter go through it. So it’s really all ages, you’d be surprised. Little to in their eighties.

Q: I think we all have movies that define our childhoods. What was yours?

Jodi: Cinderella. Yeah, Cinderella was my movie. I just loved everything about it. The fact that she comes from one area and she wishes for something more. And I think every little girl, and even a young boy as well, wishes for that next step or the dream or whatever that may look like. So that was my movie. Loved it, loved my Barbie’s and loved all that.

Q : What are some of the most impactful fan stories that you’ve heard about how Little Mermaid has change their lives?

Jodi: I think that it’s usually dealing with children. I’ve made, unfortunately, several calls to children before they pass away. Those are hard, especially when the parent puts you on the phone and goes, “You know, they won’t be able to speak, but they can hear you.” Those are heart wrenching, and then when you follow up with them and they say, “Yes, she died peacefully.”

Working with kids in hospitals, kids that are burn victims, burning, grafting is a really painful process for a child, and you’ll find that certain songs and certain characters soothe children to get through painful procedures. So I had a lot kids that have been battling burns and deal with very painful symptoms. They use the song and the character to calm them.

I’ve had children that have learned how to speak, who have never spoken a word, having low-functioning, severe autism. So I’ve got several kids through the years that I’ve met face to face, who actually speak now. And they will tell, or their parent will tell me, “They learned how to speak from your film.”

Those are the stories that you kind of wish that people knew more about, more than “This is just an animated film and they’re doing a re-release and…” But when you get behind the scenes and you start to hear the impact of that, that really blows your mind. Those are the ones that you just take a deep breath and are again so grateful, so thankful that you can be part of a child’s healing process.

Q: What have been some of the most amazing things you’ve gotten to do?

Jodi: I love getting to share my story. I love getting to talk about it and I love getting in front of a huge group of kids and singing the songs and just watching their reactions and their faces and their parents and their grandparents, who are going through all their emotions with it as well. And I never get tired of singing the song, I sing it all the time. And it’s always fresh and new, you know, it’s like the day I recorded it.

What would you have asked Jodi?