'That Apu Crap': Hank Azaria Opens Up on Move Away From Simpsons Role

Hank Azaria performed the voice of Apu, the Indian Kwik-E-Mart manager on The Simpsons, since the show started. But then a wider discussion started to take place about whether it was appropriate for white actors to voice characters of color.

This cumulated in a 2017 documentary, The Problem With Apu, by Indian comedian Hari Kondabolu. Kondabolu believed the portrayal of Apu was racist against South Asians and a lightning rod for bullying. Though The Simpsons pushed back against the accusation, going so far as to release an episode where the characters comment on how past works can be seen as "politically incorrect," Azaria announced in 2020 that he would not be playing Apu anymore.

Now, he's spoken about that decision on an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out. It's been a long and interesting journey for Azaria, and one where he's explored how things previously seen as innocuous can become offensive later on.

"'Do I keep doing the voice or not,' required a deep dive," the voice actor told Torre. "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. 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 eventually concluded that yes, he was a part of that. He had based the Apu voice on a Peter Sellers performance the legendary comedian gave while in brownface, which would obviously be seen as highly offensive today. Azaria thought doing an Indian accent would be seen as no different from doing a French or Italian one, and he held onto that until proved otherwise.

"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,'" Azaria said. "I was surprised myself that I came down on, 'No, I think I'm participating in a harm here.'"

Azaria Learned People Were Being Hurt By Apu

Azaria explained on the podcast that eventually, he was struck by people using the Apu name and accent to hurt others. He explained, "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 more in the stereotypical professions like taxi driver. They were hated on physically and called 'Apu.'"

He then brought up Kondabolu. "Hari, no matter how American he is or sounds, appears Indian and will get Apu crap if someone decides to give it to him," he said. "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 things."

Apu has not spoken in The Simpsons since Azaria stepped down from the role. It remains to be seen whether the character will be recast with a South Asian voice actor in the future.

Source: Pablo Torre Finds Out