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Josh Gad could have never anticipated that voicing Olaf in Disney’s mega-popular Frozen franchise would afford him the opportunity to fulfill the wishes of many sick children.
Since the movie was released in 2013, Gad has made countless calls to gravely ill children whose only request is to speak with Olaf. “I actually get choked up thinking about some of the kids that I’ve left messages for because it’s so … it’s so fleeting,” he told BuzzFeed News while promoting his new movie, Marshall. “It’s such a little thing that I do that goes such a long way for these children. But you take their mind off of it for a minute, for a day.”
As a parent of two himself, Gad understands that granting these wishes not only brightens the kids’ days, but also their parents’. “Hopefully you give their parents a distraction,” he said. “As a parent, it’s the hardest thing to think about and, you know, I take ownership of the fact that that’s as much my job as doing the voice for commercial reasons. The fact that it has transcended that is such a wonderful thing, but it’s also really sad. I would take all of it back if it just meant that the kids could have a normal life. You know at the end of that call is another call where the child is gone.”
Watch Josh Gad talk about the emotional experience.
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