The Simpsons Star Explains Why He No Longer Voices Apu

The Simpsons faced some major controversy a few years ago over the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and the representation of South Asian people in media, and the former voice actor behind the character explained why he no longer performs Apu’s voice in a recent interview. Apu was in the center of a major controversy sparked by the release of Hari Kondabolu’s documentary, The Problem with Aputhat highlighted the harmful nature of Apu’s depiction for Kondabolu’s culture and people. But it wasn’t as clear cut as that either as there was a lot of back and forth over the character in the years since.

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It wasn’t until 2020 that The Simpsons star Hank Azaria announced that he was stepping down from the role, and even apologized for that fact not long after. In a recent interview with Pablo Torre Finds Out, Azaria spoke on his decision even more and noted that it came after much reflection on his part in it all. Ultimately deciding that it was causing harm, he stepped down from Apu when recognizing the importance of the character’s place in media and pop culture.

Why Hank Azaria Stepped Away From Apu

“In order to answer that question, do I keep doing this 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 just froze at The Simpsons. We had no idea what to do,” Azaria began when explaining why he ultimately decided to stop doing Apu. “The character just 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 part of that?’” As Azaria explained, the original voice came from a recognizable source.

“That voice was based on a Peter Sellers performance from a movie called The Party in the mid ’60s where he played a guy named Hrundi Bakshi in brownface. What’s the difference between [The Pink Panther’s] Inspector Clouseau’s silly French voice, Dr. Strangelove’s silly German voice, and Hrundi Bakshi’s rather silly Indian voice? It’s a question I still get asked to this day,” Azaria explained. “Why can you do Luigi and that’s not offensive? Why can you talk like Cletus and that’s not a problem, but you can’t do Apu?” But as Azaria continued, it was a decision that came after a lot of inward reflection that didn’t come easy.

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Explaining The Change to Apu

“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 when I came down on, ‘No, I actually think I am participating in a harm here.’” As Azaria continued, he explained that upon reflection he realized that Apu was being used as a tool of harm and abuse in real world situations. It’s something he notes that The Simpsons shouldn’t be blamed for, but helped to tee up nonetheless.

Explaining that what helped to ultimately make his decision alongside the use of Apu in hate crimes against South Asian people, is that Apu himself was the only representation for South Asian people in that kind of scale. It’s not just one character amidst many other types of personalities, this was it. As Azaria notes, “While Apu might not be the most important thing in the world, it’s a window into quite important thing.”

HT – Pablo Torre Finds Out