Posted in: Fox, TV | Tagged: the simpsons

The Simpsons: Hank Azaria on Retiring Apu, How Name Became a Slur

Hank Azaria discussed his decision to retire from voicing Apu on FOX's The Simpsons and how the character was used by others to promote hate.

When The Simpsons aired the controversial season 29 episode "No Good Read Goes Unpunished" in 2018, two of the primary characters in Marge (Julie Kavner) and her daughter, Lisa (Yardley Smith), attempt the long-running animated series' lingering issues addressing the disappearance of Kwik-E-Mart shop owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, voiced by Hank Azaria. Once considered a popular recurring character since the show's premiere in 1989, cultural norms, regardless of execution and intentions, don't always achieve the desired effect as the series came under scrutiny thanks in large part to the 2017 documentary The Problem with Apu from Hari Kondabolu, who spoke to those among the South Asian community were affected by the character's continued presence and perpetuated stereotypes. Azaria appeared on Pablo Torre Finds Out about how Kondabolu sparked the long overdue conversation that ultimately led to him retiring the character and how it wasn't something he could dismiss as a white actor playing a person of color.

The Simpsons: Hank Azaria on Apu's Origins and Epiphany

"In order to answer that question, 'Do I keep doing the voice or not,' required a deep dive. It wasn't like, 'Well, let me take a week and look into this.' It was probably two or three years because we all froze at 'The Simpsons,'" Azaria told host Pablo Torre. "We had no idea what to do. The character stopped saying anything, and it became a deep dive into, 'Well, is this racist? Does Hollywood have a tradition of doing this? In one way or another, am I a part of that?"

Azaria broke down the inspiration behind Apu. "The aforementioned Peter Sellers, which that (Apu) voice was based on, was based on his performance from a movie called, 'The Party' (1968) in the mid-60s where he played an Indian guy named Hrundi V. Bakshi in brownface. What's the difference between (Seller characters) [French accent] Inspector Jacques Cousteau's silly French voice, [German accent] Dr. Strangelove's silly German voice, and Hrundi V. Bakshi, a silly Indian voice? It's a question I still get asked."

As far as how Apu compares to his other ethnic characters, "I still get comments to this day, [goes into Italian accent] 'Why can you do Luigi? And that's not offensive.' [Goes into southern accent] 'Why can you talk like Cletus?' [back to normal voice] 'And that's not a problem? But you can't do Apu?'" Azaria said, "Honestly, at first, I thought, 'Let me look into this, and then I'll go back to doing the voice,' and say, 'I understand, but I'm going to keep doing this.' I was surprised myself that I came down on, 'No, I think I'm participating in a harm here.'"

Azaria broke down when he learned the character ended up being a slur within the Indian community. "The main thing was when hate crimes were perpetrated against Southern Asian people, a lot of times, they were just called 'Apu,' which became a slur when convenience store guys were stabbed, shot, or robbed, especially when guys were who were more in the stereotypical professions like taxi driver. They were hated on physically and called 'Apu'"

The voice actor then compared it to if he felt that as a Jewish person, everyone only had one figure to go on. He would understand the frustration before coming to his decision to retire the character in 2020. The Simpsons subsequently announced that their white actors would no longer voice people of color, a trend that was followed on other animated shows like Family Guy and Futurama.

"I'm a white guy, so when I walk around out there, [Jewish impression] 'Unless I talk like this,' nobody would assume, 'I talk this way.' Hari, no matter how American he is or sounds, appears Indian and will get Apu crap if someone decides to give it to him," Azaria explained. "That Apu crap isn't because it's a cartoon, like 'Oh, it's a silly voice.' There's all this other stereotyping and things that have teeth in them that affect people of color in this country. While Apu might not be the most important thing in the world, it's a window into quite important."

Apu has been relegated to a voiceless background character with minimal screen time, and in the five years since Azaria retired from the role, there has been no replacement to take over. Azaria also stopped voicing Homer Simpson's (Dan Castellaneta) African American power plant co-worker Carl Carlson since season 32 with Alex Désert taking over. For more on Azaria's career, you can check out the video. You can also check out the 2023 episode of NPR's Code Switch which Azaria and Kondabolu discuss the character since the actor didn't appear in Kondabolu's film.

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