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‘The Simpsons’ Surprise: Apu Is Heard for the First Time in Nearly a Decade, as Sunil Malhotra Takes Over for Hank Azaria (variety.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by to c/television@piefed.social
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[–] 3 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

It totally made sense at the beginning of The Simpsons to have ~8 people doing dozen of voices each.

They probably could have gotten around paying the core group as much if they had split the voice into more actors so they didn't have such power to demand hundreds of thousands an episode. Greed though is how Hollywood works.

They should have done this sooner but probably thought it wouldn't look bad by waiting a decade so people don't have a recent comparison.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

    Nah, they've replaced other characters' voices with much less down time. I think it's more of just the world moving past the whole cancel culture crap some people were getting way too into. Certain groups were hating on Apu hard, and the only semi-valid critique they had was he's voiced by a now famous white guy doing a cliche voice.

    Also, don't some of the unions stipulate that minorities should be voiced by the appropriate minority? Not for cancel culture BS, but because they're sick of having roles go to established famous people instead of the thousands of more than qualified individuals. (and then King of the Hill hired Ronny Chieng to voice Kahn Souphanousinphone which was quite the whiplash lol)

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  • [–] 5 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

    and then King of the Hill hired Ronny Chieng to voice Kahn Souphanousinphone

    Which is interesting because Ronny Chieng was born in Malaysia and per Wikipedia was born into a Malaysian Chinese family. However Kahn is famously Laotian. Is Ronny Chieng the appropriate minority? Should a Laotian voice actor be playing the role?

    Also let's look at the recent Lanterns TV show where Aaron Pierre, a British actor, plays John Stewart who is from America. Should British actors play Americans?

    Or what about when John Lithgow, from upstate New York, played British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in The Crown. Should American actors play British?

    I think it's a complex subject.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    It is a complex subject, though I think they have a decent place right now: Try to force Hollywood to stop white-washing everything and stop paying only famous majorities for minority roles.

    US vs UK is a bit silly of an argument, because what problem would you be solving by banning crossover there? There are huge actors from both places, and "crossing the pond" is kinda' a legitimate physical limitation vs simply not hiring minorities that are already in Hollywood.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    To start, I want to be clear I have zero issues with the characters Aaron Pierre has played. He's a talented actor and from the interviews I've seen a wonderful person.

    Aaron Pierre, per Wikipedia, was born in London. His mother is from Jamaica, and he has Curaçaoan and Sierra Leonean heritage on his father’s side.

    His acting history includes playing Malcolm X and in the case of Lanterns John Stewart who's character history and in the show Lanterns deals with being a black American. Aaron Pierre is not a black American, should a black American have played those roles? A black American and a black Briton are both black and both minorities, but they're not interchangeable.

    To extend further, can someone who is Chinese play a Japanese character, or a Korean character because they're all Asian?

    To bring everything full circle, Hank Azaria was born in Queens, NYC. Per Wikipedia, "his paternal grandparents were Sephardic Jews from Salonika and Smyrna. His paternal grandfather... came from Salonika which was then in the Ottoman Empire, today the Greek city of Thessaloniki in Greek Macedonia. His paternal grandmother... was born in Bergama, modern-day Turkey (Izmir Province)."

    Hank Azaria previously voiced Apu, Carl, Lou, Bumblebee Man, & Doctor Nick. Hank Azaria continues to voice Italian characters Luigi, Legs and Johnny Tightlips. Hank Azaria is not Italian. Should he continue to voice those characters?

    Voice actors and traditional actors can and do play a wide variety of roles. I think expanding who has access to roles is a positive thing. At the same time I think we should give actors the freedom to act, even if they don't "fit" the role.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    You are really trying to hate on this idea...

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    I'm really not trying to hate.

    I'm just trying to look at it as a complex issue. I don't think there are simple lines to be drawn. I'm also not asking you for a definitive answer, so I apologize if that's how it feels, that's not my intention. I'm asking questions that I think are worth considering, and I could reasonably argue both for and against.

    And I think voice acting is extra interesting. You don't have to put prosthetics or makeup to change your voice. Bart Simpson is voiced by a woman. On Bob's Burgers Tina Belcher is voiced by a man. The late great James Earl Jones voiced Darth Vader. The titular character of Samurai Jack, a Japanese samurai, is voiced by Phil LaMarr a black American.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

    Yea, I think whatever is totally fine in voice acting, so long as they are not being weird and just hiring a bunch of big names to get them on the poster board. I know I know, it happens a lot, and it's not exactly something you could write a law over (without collateral damage anyways). It's just super lame when they do it, IMO.

    Would still definitely prefer native people of certain ethnicities to represent the character, like Apu, but that's because I'd rather they get paid for the representation on screen, and I'd rather media contain accurate things and not go back to shitty fake accents.

    If it's a situation like Tina and the mom, I'd say that's more of a creative choice than a representation thing. I'd rather IRL minorities get a job for a normal character than some big name person that doesn't need the job.

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