In his new memoir, Josh Gad recalls the overwhelming sadness and confusion around Olaf’s original death in Frozen 2.
Do you want to build a snowman? How about a great relationship with your therapist? In his new memoir In Gad We Trust, Frozen actor Josh Gad says Olaf’s original death scene in Frozen 2 was “brutal.” It was so brutal that the film’s writer, Jennifer Lee, was told to change it lest she make the children cry eternal tears of sadness.
“Jenn and I started recording the dialogue and I couldn’t get through it without sobbing. Those first recordings were brutal, and I remember feeling that we were doing something that was going to pack a serious punch,” Gad says in his new book about breaking down in the studio during production.
When Gad asked Lee how the first test screening went, Lee could not bring herself to lie. She informed Gad and other cast members that, while adults enjoyed the emotional scene, it left kids “very confused and very, very sad.”
According to Gad, he was unaware of Olaf’s demise before arriving at the recording studio on that fateful day. The shock of returning the friendly snowman to the winter from whence he came triggered a deep and abiding emotional response.
“I got to the studio and Jenn slow-rolled me into the day’s material. As I looked at the scene, the first thing I saw was ‘Olaf begins to flurry away.’ I read further. ‘Anna sobs’ and ‘Olaf looks to her for help.’ I looked at Jenn. ‘Wait — are we…?’ With tears in her eyes, she nodded her head and said, ‘Yes.’”
Damn! That’s cold-blooded. That’s some end-of-Toy Story 3 s**t.
“By the end of the recording, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. I remember getting a FaceTime call from my wife during the session and her response to seeing my puffy and red eyes was ‘Jesus, what the hell are they doing to you over there?’ She couldn’t tell if we were recording a sequel to Frozen or Sophie’s Choice,” Gad recalls.
Lee might have sugar-coated the children’s response to the first test screening. According to Gad, “Olaf’s death scene was causing absolute havoc with the younger viewers. They were apparently sobbing, screaming, and fully traumatized by the extended sequence and the tone of the scene.”
Even Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger weighed in through Lee, saying, “Olaf is a child. You can’t just willy-nilly kill a scared child, because the children watching will see themselves in him.”
Ultimately, Lee rewrote the scene to present a more endearing tone. Rather than show Olaf as frightened by his inevitable demise, he appears strong, aware, and at peace with his fate. He and Anna embrace before he slowly blows away, leaving Anna and the audience with a sense of closure as opposed to misery and despair.
“Come here, I’ve got you,” Anna says during the bittersweet scene, swooping Olaf into her lap. Before he flurries away, Olaf tells Anna that he “thought of one thing that’s permanent — love.”
I’m not crying! You’re the one who’s crying!
How did Olaf’s death scene hit you when you watched Frozen 2? Let us know in the comments section below.
