The veteran “Simpsons” voice actor explains why he stepped away from the character, which has been criticized as a demeaning stereotype.
In the three decades that he has been a voice actor on “The Simpsons,” Hank Azaria has played dozens of Springfield’s absurd denizens on that long-running animated Fox comedy, including the surly bartender Moe, the inept lawman Chief Wiggum and the adenoidal bookworm Professor Frink.
But in recent years, Azaria has become irrevocably associated with one “Simpsons” character in particular: Apu, the obliging Indian immigrant and proprietor of the town’s Kwik-E-Mart convenience store.
Azaria has played the character since his first appearance in 1990, but he and the show have faced increasing condemnation from audience members who feel that Apu is a bigoted caricature.
To these critics, many of whom are of Indian descent, Apu is a servile stereotype. As voiced by Azaria, who is white, Apu’s ethnic accent and his catchphrase, “Thank you! Come again!”, have become grating slurs.
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Azaria now says that he will no longer play Apu on “The Simpsons.” It is a choice he said he made for himself after a yearslong process of examining his own feelings and listening to others who explained how they had been hurt by Apu, who was for years the only depiction of an Indian person they saw on TV.
“Once I realized that that was the way this character was thought of, I just didn’t want to participate in it anymore,” Azaria told me in a recent interview. “It just didn’t feel right.”
Even after Azaria reached this decision, which he first disclosed to the website /Film, questions remain about how Apu will be handled going forward on “The Simpsons,” whose producers have been hesitant to address the controversy surrounding the character.
Hank Azaria Will No Longer Voice Apu on ‘The Simpsons’
Jan. 17, 2020
In a statement, the executive producers of “The Simpsons” said: “We respect Hank’s journey in regard to Apu. We have granted his wish to no longer voice the character.”
However, the producers did not indicate whether the character would continue to appear on the show, as voiced by another actor. In their statement, they said: “Apu is beloved worldwide. We love him too. Stay tuned.”
While the fate of Apu is out of Azaria’s hands, the actor said he found value in engaging with viewers whose arguments he was initially reluctant to hear and in coming to understand that resistance to hearing them.
His experience, he said, could be instructive at a time when representation remains a fraught topic in popular culture and when creators and performers fear drastic repercussions if their work is deemed out-of-step with contemporary standards.
“What happened with this character is a window into an important issue,” Azaria said. “It’s a good way to start the conversation. I can be accountable and try to make up for it as best I can.”
Continue reading the main story
In his acting career, the 55-year-old Azaria has had prominent roles in various live-action films (“The Birdcage”), TV dramas (“Ray Donovan”) and comedies (including “Friends,” “Mad About You” and his IFC series, “Brockmire,” which begins its final season on March 18).
He has also worked on “The Simpsons” since its first season, which included the episode that introduced Apu as a fussy shopkeeper oblivious to the thieving teens in his store. Azaria said he based the character’s voice on clerks he had heard growing up in New York, who tended to be Indian and Pakistani.
He said he had also drawn inspiration from the 1968 Blake Edwards comedy, “The Party,” in which Peter Sellers wore brownface to play a bumbling Indian actor. Azaria said that at the time, he had no idea so many viewers had come to regard Sellers’s performance as racist.
“That represents a real blind spot I had,” Azaria said with some disappointment. “There I am, joyfully basing a character on what was already considered quite upsetting.”
Over the next 25 years, Apu appeared frequently on “The Simpsons,” sometimes in episodes that mocked xenophobia and anti-immigrant attitudes in America, and Azaria won multiple Emmy Awards for his work on the show. But the character and his performance came under increased scrutiny.
In a 2012 performance on the FX series “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell,” the comedian Hari Kondabolu celebrated the growing number of Indian-Americans on television while singling out Azaria for an obsolete portrayal.
More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/...on=click&module=Editors Picks&pgtype=Homepage
In the three decades that he has been a voice actor on “The Simpsons,” Hank Azaria has played dozens of Springfield’s absurd denizens on that long-running animated Fox comedy, including the surly bartender Moe, the inept lawman Chief Wiggum and the adenoidal bookworm Professor Frink.
But in recent years, Azaria has become irrevocably associated with one “Simpsons” character in particular: Apu, the obliging Indian immigrant and proprietor of the town’s Kwik-E-Mart convenience store.
Azaria has played the character since his first appearance in 1990, but he and the show have faced increasing condemnation from audience members who feel that Apu is a bigoted caricature.
To these critics, many of whom are of Indian descent, Apu is a servile stereotype. As voiced by Azaria, who is white, Apu’s ethnic accent and his catchphrase, “Thank you! Come again!”, have become grating slurs.
Continue reading the main story
Azaria now says that he will no longer play Apu on “The Simpsons.” It is a choice he said he made for himself after a yearslong process of examining his own feelings and listening to others who explained how they had been hurt by Apu, who was for years the only depiction of an Indian person they saw on TV.
“Once I realized that that was the way this character was thought of, I just didn’t want to participate in it anymore,” Azaria told me in a recent interview. “It just didn’t feel right.”
Even after Azaria reached this decision, which he first disclosed to the website /Film, questions remain about how Apu will be handled going forward on “The Simpsons,” whose producers have been hesitant to address the controversy surrounding the character.
Hank Azaria Will No Longer Voice Apu on ‘The Simpsons’
Jan. 17, 2020
In a statement, the executive producers of “The Simpsons” said: “We respect Hank’s journey in regard to Apu. We have granted his wish to no longer voice the character.”
However, the producers did not indicate whether the character would continue to appear on the show, as voiced by another actor. In their statement, they said: “Apu is beloved worldwide. We love him too. Stay tuned.”
While the fate of Apu is out of Azaria’s hands, the actor said he found value in engaging with viewers whose arguments he was initially reluctant to hear and in coming to understand that resistance to hearing them.
His experience, he said, could be instructive at a time when representation remains a fraught topic in popular culture and when creators and performers fear drastic repercussions if their work is deemed out-of-step with contemporary standards.
“What happened with this character is a window into an important issue,” Azaria said. “It’s a good way to start the conversation. I can be accountable and try to make up for it as best I can.”
Continue reading the main story
In his acting career, the 55-year-old Azaria has had prominent roles in various live-action films (“The Birdcage”), TV dramas (“Ray Donovan”) and comedies (including “Friends,” “Mad About You” and his IFC series, “Brockmire,” which begins its final season on March 18).
He has also worked on “The Simpsons” since its first season, which included the episode that introduced Apu as a fussy shopkeeper oblivious to the thieving teens in his store. Azaria said he based the character’s voice on clerks he had heard growing up in New York, who tended to be Indian and Pakistani.
He said he had also drawn inspiration from the 1968 Blake Edwards comedy, “The Party,” in which Peter Sellers wore brownface to play a bumbling Indian actor. Azaria said that at the time, he had no idea so many viewers had come to regard Sellers’s performance as racist.
“That represents a real blind spot I had,” Azaria said with some disappointment. “There I am, joyfully basing a character on what was already considered quite upsetting.”
Over the next 25 years, Apu appeared frequently on “The Simpsons,” sometimes in episodes that mocked xenophobia and anti-immigrant attitudes in America, and Azaria won multiple Emmy Awards for his work on the show. But the character and his performance came under increased scrutiny.
In a 2012 performance on the FX series “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell,” the comedian Hari Kondabolu celebrated the growing number of Indian-Americans on television while singling out Azaria for an obsolete portrayal.
More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/...on=click&module=Editors Picks&pgtype=Homepage
