The Simpsons Will No Longer Have Hank Azaria Voice Apu
Hank Azaria, the actor who voices Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (and many, many other characters) on The Simpsons, will officially no longer be voicing the Kwik-E-Mart owner. Azaria has played Apu since the series’ first season back in 1990, but in recent years, Apu has been the subject of increasingly vocal criticism, due to the fact that it’s a bigoted caricature of an Indian man—voiced by a white man.
Azaria announced that he’d made the decision to no longer voice Apu during a January interview with /Film, but the show's executive producers confirmed the news in a New York Times story published today. “We respect Hank’s journey in regard to Apu,” a statement from The Simpsons’ executive producers reads. “We have granted his wish to no longer voice the character.”
A lot has changed since Apu first appeared 30 years ago. Indian-American comedian Hari Kondabolu brought widespread attention to the racist aspects of the character in his 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu, although he’d talked about Apu in his comedy for years before that (and he wasn’t the first). There aren’t a lot of Indian characters on American television—especially so when Kondabolu was growing up—and it was damaging to have one of the only south Asians on the small screen be a stereotypical, heavily accented convenience store clerk.
“A white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father,” is how Kondabolu described Apu in 2012.
Azaria—and The Simpsons as a larger entity—initially didn’t respond well to the criticism, most infamously in a dismissive 2018 cold open that alluded to Apu as “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” Azaria, as detailed in the New York Times article, initially rebuffed the critique, telling himself that The Simpsons “make[s] fun of everyone. Don’t tell me how to be funny.”
However, Azaria’s views have evolved, he says, especially as he realized Apu’s caricature was more offensive than, say, Ned Flanders’ mocking of churchgoers or Cletus the slack-jawed Yokel, because Indians and other marginalized groups traditionally don’t have nearly as much representation 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 said. “It just didn’t feel right.”
Azaria will no longer voice Apu, but it’s unclear if Simpsons fans have seen the last of him. “Apu is beloved worldwide,” a statement from The Simpsons producers reads. “We love him too. Stay tuned.”
Whether this means Apu will be recast or tweaked in some way, or if he’ll just appear in non-speaking roles is unclear. Season 31 (thirty-one!) of The Simpsons is currently airing.
In his new documentary The Problem with Apu, Hari Kondabolu uses The Simpsons' Kwik-E-Mart owner as a lens onto Indian stereotypes.
Originally Appeared on GQ
