Josh Gad (pictured) is an American actor and singer best known for voicing Olaf in Frozen. He has also appeared in ER, The Daily Show, Modern Family, New Girl, Bored to Death, Numb3rs, and 1600 Penn. He currently plays a fictionalised version of himself on The Comedians.
His film roles include The Rocker, 21, Love & Other Drugs, Jobs, and The Wedding Ringer, the upcoming Angry Birds movie and Beauty and the Beast. He also stars as Ludlow Lamonsoff in Pixels, from director Chris Columbus, featuring alongside an all-star cast who play characters called into action to save the planet from aliens who attack using famous arcade game characters, such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.
What struck you about this film when you first heard about it? It was a very unusual concept and when I heard the pitch I was like: “Are you kidding me? That sounds insane!” And the script had so many of the hallmarks that as a film lover I grew up on.
What are those hallmarks? It had all of the hallmarks of the movies from the early to mid-’80s. It had Chris Columbus. And then there was the element of iconic arcade games, which had such an influence on me growing up in South Florida during the 1980s. I had two older brothers who constantly went to the local arcade and I’d go with them. They’d have pizza in one hand and a joystick in the other, and everybody would be cheering on whomever was trying to get the high score.
Did Adam Sandler talk to you to about the initial idea, because he is also a producer on the film? Adam is also a writer on the film and is in it. But his No 1 goal is to make sure he is giving his co-stars an opportunity to get the laughs and have moments of mirth, and to create an atmosphere of fun.
What was your relationship with computer games? Did you go down to the arcades or was it more about games consoles at home? I was born in ’81 so I would go to the arcades, which were still really big until the early ’90s. A lot of the games, specifically the ones that come into play in Pixels, were just past my generation. We were the Nintendo generation. I must have played Duck Hunt and Super Mario Brothers for a week. And then I remember my brothers having friends over and the entire weekend would be about playing Zelda and beating the game.
So I definitely grew up with a heavy influence in terms of video games. It was a huge influence growing up even though I wasn’t actively going to the arcades to play Donkey Kong or Pac-Man at that time. I was still involved in that kind of era.
There are plenty of people in their 30s and 40s who still love computer games. What about you? So much of my time is taken up by working or being a dad and I never want to play in front of my kids because I don’t want them to get into it just yet. But, yes, it still gives me countless hours of pleasure and the games now are just incredible. The graphics and the vividness of the worlds now are just mind-boggling and it is incredible to see a new generation whose skill set in many ways has been defined by how many hours they spend on video games.
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