Interview with Jodi Benson, The Voice of “Ariel” in The Little Mermaid

We are so excited to have this interview with Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in Disney’s Little Mermaid.

While in California last month, one of the amazing opportunities we had was to interview Jodi Benson, who is the voice of Ariel on The Little Mermaid. I’m not sure if I loved the experience more because of who she is or if it was because of the kind of real life person I learned she was.

Jamie received an all expense paid trip to the Disney Planes premiere, as well as The Little Mermaid event, however all opinions are her own.

She is quite possibly the most kind and genuine celebrity I have ever met. Just talking to her, you can see that she oozes friendliness. I didn’t feel like we were worlds apart knowing I’m just a blogger and she’s most definitely FAMOUS! It really felt like we could be friends and I love people like that.

Our time with Jodi was limited, but I truly fell in love with what a lovely person she was. I want to share with you all a little bit of what I learned about her and her time as Ariel.

Interview with Jodi Benson

When Jodi was asked at what point when she was doing the movie did she realize it was going to have such a lasting effect, she said, “Absolutely no idea whatsoever. You know, it was, it was a great job, and I was excited to fly back and forth, you know, over two and a half years. But, I just thought, okay, I’ll go back, and I’ll just do my Broadway shows, and life will just go on, but obviously God had another incredible plan, so it was really unbelievable when the premiere came and all of the sudden it was like, my family just went, why didn’t you tell us that you’d been part of this. And I was like, I tried to tell you that I was part of this thing, but you made fun of me. Um, and boy, you know, from that moment on, it changed my life forever.”

I can’t even imagine what that moment must have been like for her.

As a mom, I wondered mostly what it was like away from work and with her children. You know it had to be asked, but Jodi was asked if she always sings for her children and if she sings Ariel’s songs. “Yes, I would sing them to sleep mostly with praise songs from church. And 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. But, yeah, I, we do sing, there’s a lot of music. My daughter is a nonstop singer. She’s taken my place now.”

Wouldn’t it just be so neat to have Ariel sing you to sleep every night? And, I love how the whole family is so involved in music. That’s really neat to hear about a bonded family like that.

Jodi was also asked if she would give up her voice for love. What a hard question, for a woman with such a powerful and beautiful voice, but I loved her answer. “Yes, I would. It would be really hard, because singing is such a huge part of my life and the way that I communicate, but yes, for my husband I would.” Jodi and her husband will be married 30 years this coming May and they both share a love for singing.

My favorite question, by far, and the one that brought tears to my eyes was, “Do you have any fan stories you would share about how The Little Mermaid impacted lives?”

“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, ‘they won’t be able to speak, but they can hear you.’ Those are heartwrenching…and then when you follow up with them and they say, ‘yes, she died peacefully.’ …Certain songs and certain characters soothe children to get through their painful procedures…I’ve got several kids throughout the years I’ve met face to face, who actually speak now. And will tell, or their parent will tell me, that they learned how to speak from the film … Those are the kind of stories that you kind of with that people know more about than this just an animated film … when you get behind the scenes and you start to hear the impact of that, that really blows your mind.”

What an amazing woman to have the opportunity to meet, learn about, and then share with you! I’m honored to have had the experience. But, as much as I loved talking to her, my favorite part of our time with her was listening to her sing, “Part of Your World.” It truly blew me away. Take a look at this video to hear for yourself.

Disney’s The Little Mermaid Blu-ray: Diamond Edition (with DVD and Digital Copy) can be yours to own when it comes out on October 1st.