Hank Azaria apologizes for playing Apu on ‘The Simpsons’ for three decades

In a current episode of Dax Shepard’s podcast, “Armchair Expert,” Azaria recalled feeling harm and defensive in 2017 when “The Problem with Apu,” a documentary by Indian American comic Hari Kondabolu, launched a discussion concerning the character and the South Asian stereotypes he perpetuated.

Initially, Azaria mentioned he didn’t wish to “knee-jerk respond to what could have been … 17 hipsters in a microbrewery in Brooklyn.” But he realized he wanted to coach himself: “I talked to a lot of Indian people. I talked to a lot of people who knew a lot about racism in this country,” Azaria mentioned. “I took seminars. I read.”

One dialog that notably resonated with Azaria occurred at his son’s faculty, the place the actor spoke with a bunch of Indian college students. One 17-year-old approached Azaria with tears in his eyes. “He’s never even seen ‘The Simpsons’ … but knows what Apu means,” Azaria defined. “It’s practically a slur at this point. All he knows is this is how his people are thought of and represented to many people in this country.”

The scholar requested Azaria to cross a message alongside to his business colleagues: “Will you please tell the writers in Hollywood that what they do and what they come up with really matters in people’s lives, like it has consequences?”

“I used to be like ‘yes, my friend, I will tell them that,” Azaria said before turning to Shepard’s co-host Monica Padman, who’s Indian American. “I said to him, and I’m going to say to you right now, I really do apologize. I know you weren’t asking for that, but it’s important,” Azaria mentioned. “I apologize for my part in creating that and participating in that.”

“Part of me feels like I need to go around to every single Indian person in this country,” Azaria mentioned.

“I really, really appreciate that it took you two or three years before you felt comfortable really speaking on it,” Padman instructed Azaria. “It wasn’t just lip service. … You really committed to learning about it.”

Azaria is certainly one of a number of White actors who’ve been known as out for voicing characters of coloration lately. Jenny Slate and Kristen Bell, who’s married to Shepard, mentioned final yr they’d cease voicing mixed-race characters on Netflix’s “Big Mouth” and Apple TV Plus’s “Central Park,” respectively. Mike Hale stepped down from voicing Cleveland, a Black man on Fox’s “Family Guy.”

“The Simpsons” initially confronted criticism over Apu with a joke in an April 2018 episode, wherein Lisa Simpson makes a reference to “something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect.” The present’s message, because it minimize to a signed picture of Apu on the Simpson household nightstand: “Don’t have a cow.”

The Fox present has since mentioned it should stop using White actors to voice characters of color. Azaria, who additionally stepped down from voicing a Black “Simpsons” character on the animated collection, known as on Hollywood to forged individuals of coloration to play characters of coloration.

“If it’s an Indian character or a Latinx character or a Black character, please let’s have that person voice the character,” Azaria mentioned.

Azaria mentioned he continues to make amends for voicing the character. The actor mentioned he has teamed with the anti-racist Soul Focused Group, which supplied one of many seminars he took, to assist educate others. It’s been a journey, he mentioned, to appreciate that what he thought was a “funny, thoughtful” character was truly hurtful to many individuals.

“I really didn’t know any better. I didn’t think about it,” Azaria mentioned. “I was unaware of how much relative advantage I had received in this country as a White kid from Queens. I never thought about this stuff because I didn’t have to.”