https://www.slashfilm.com/apu-voice-actor/

"All we know there is I won’t be doing the voice anymore, unless there’s someway to transition it or something," Azaria told Slashfilm at the TV press tour while promoting the final season of Brockmire. Azaria added that it was a mutual decision between him and The Simpsons producers. “We all made the decision together,” Azaria said. “We all agreed on it. We all feel like it’s the right thing and good about it.” Azaria added: “What they’re going to do with the character is their call. It’s up to them and they haven’t sorted it out yet. All we’ve agreed on is I won’t do the voice anymore.” Azaria stepping down comes less than two years after he told Stephen Colbert (https://www.primetimer.com/item/Hank-Azaria-offers-to-quot-step-aside-quot-from-Apu-role-calls-on-The-Simpsons-to-listen-to-South-Asians-LaS66z) he was willing to step aside from the role. “I’ve given this a lot of thought, really a lot of thought, and as I say my eyes have been opened," he said in the April 2018 Late Show interview. "And I think the most important thing is we have to listen to South Asian people, Indian people in this country and they talk about what they feel and how they think about this character and what their American experience of it has been.” The Simpsons showrunner Al Jean has yet to comment on Azaria's reported remarks. The character Apu has become increasingly scrutinized in recent years as more Indian-Americans become prominent in mainstream media. Comedian Hari Kondabolu's 2017 TruTV documentary The Problem with Apu especially drew attention to accusations that the Apu character is racist. In response to Azaria's comments, Kondabalu said he hopes The Simpsons keeps Apu (https://twitter.com/harikondabolu/status/1218243117197025280). "If @HankAzaria is indeed no longer doing the voice of Apu, I do hope they keep the character & let a very talented writing staff do something interesting with him," Kondabolu tweeted. "If not to better the show, then to atleast spare me some death threats. My documentary The Problem with Apu was not made to get rid of a dated cartoon character, but to discuss race, representation & my community (which I love very much). It was also about how you can love something (like the Simpsons) & still be critical about aspects of it (Apu). Most people who saw the documentary like it & those that didn’t see it...hate it. You can see it on Amazon, truTV app & other places. Feel free to watch it by legal or illegal means. I don’t get paid more either way & it’s the message of the film that has the most value to me."

Hank Azaria says he educated himself before quitting The Simpsons' Apu character (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/arts/hank-azaria-simpsons-apu.html)

In his first in-depth interview since revealing he quit the Apu role (https://www.primetimer.com/item/Hank-Azaria-reportedly-says-hell-no-longer-voice-The-Simpsons-Apu-1KSoQP), Azaria tells The New York Times he knew that there was a controversy brewing around Apu for years, even before comedian Hari Kondabolu's The Problem with Apu documentary was released in 2017. But at the time, he was unsure what to do. “I didn’t want to knee-jerk drop it if I didn’t feel that was right, nor did I want to stubbornly keep doing it if that wasn’t right,” he says. Azaria says he decided to educate himself about the impact of Apu's character on Indian-Americans, reading articles about representation and attending seminars about racism and social consciousness. “Once I realized that that was the way this character was thought of, I just didn’t want to participate in it anymore,” says Azaria. “It just didn’t feel right.” Azaria also consulted with the actor Utkarsh Ambudkar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ5aBrt477A), who appeared in The Problem with Apu and who worked with Azaria on Brockmire and The Simpsons, where he played Apu's nephew. "I felt a genuine dedication to growth, for himself, as a human being,” says Ambudkar. “He wanted to get on the right side of the narrative.” Ambudkar adds: "As a South Asian, I wish that it had happened 15 years ago. I love Hank very much, but his Indian accent is garbage.” Azaria says he modeled Apu on Peter Sellers' bumbling brownface Indian portrayal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03QHVB_n6N8) in the 1968 Blake Edwards comedy movie The Party, and had no idea it was racist. “That represents a real blind spot I had,” Azaria says with some disappointment. “There I am, joyfully basing a character on what was already considered quite upsetting.” Azaria says he also had to ask himself, as a Jewish man, what he would think if a stereotypical portrayal was the only representation of Jews in pop-culture. “But then I started thinking, if that character were the only representation of Jewish people in American culture for 20 years, which was the case with Apu, I might not love that,” he says. Kondabolu, who has always maintained that he doesn't want The Simpsons to get rid of Apu, says he's happy to see Azaria's transformation. “Whatever happens with the character, to me, is secondary,” says Kondabolu. “I’m happy that Hank did the work that a lot of people wouldn’t have. I feel like he’s a really thoughtful person and he got the bigger picture.” In a statement, the executive producers of The Simpsons said of Azaria's decision: “We respect Hank’s journey in regard to Apu. We have granted his wish to no longer voice the character.”

I respect his decision too. Time for the show to evolve.

I saw the scene from The Party and it was cringeworthy. It doesn't hold up well today.

Some South Asians hope The Simpsons finds a creative way to revive Apu now that Hank Azaria has stepped away from the controversial role (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/as-simpsons-silences-apu-south-asian-creatives-hope-characters-authentic-revival-1272222)

"Silencing Apu is a step sideways," says Castlevania producer Adi Shankar, a vocal critic of the Apu portrayal. "It doesn't undo the damage, address the damage or benefit the show's 'creativity.' It just removes another brown face from TV." Shankar and other South Asian creatives say Apu needs a refresh. "Give Apu a spinoff," says Shankar. "We're arguing over racial constructs, this is a perfect opportunity to deconstruct it, to dissolve it and bring our species together."

The Simpsons boss: If we were casting Apu now, we'd pick an "ethnically correct" actor (https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-03-23/the-simpsons-apu-recasting/)

“If we were casting the character now, we’d cast someone who was ethnically correct to play Apu," Simpsons showrunner Al Jean tells Radio Times, in discussing the character of Indian descent who had been voiced by Hank Azaria for nearly three decades. "The way we always wrote him, though, was as a hardworking, thoughtful family man who was smarter than everyone else in Springfield. The majority of the jokes were about Springfield not appreciating what a gem he is. So we’re proud of him.”

so what does he want to do now?

Matt Groening Says he's Proud of Apu, Has Plans for Character Post-Controversy
by Rosy Cordero
March 21, 2021


"The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening is teasing plans for controversial character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, formerly voiced by Hank Azaria who stepped down after public outcry convinced producers to no longer have white actors play non-white characters.

"I think the Apu stories are fantastic, and he's one of the most nuanced characters on a silly two-dimensional cartoon show. So, yeah, I'm proud of Apu," Groening told USA Today when asked about the criticism that the character is a stereotype.

"I'm trying not to open up another chasm of criticism, but it doesn't matter what I say. I'll get it anyway," he continued.




While promoting the show's 700th episode airing this Sunday on Fox, Groening also said that while they have yet to find the right actor to voice Apu moving forward, "we're working on something kind of ambitious."

He also said they've got plans for the character "but we have to see if we can make the stories work."




Producers announced in June that white actors will no longer voice non-white characters. Of the decision, Groening says it wasn't his idea but he's "fine with it."

He continued, "Who can be against diversity? So it's great. However, I will just say that the actors were not hired to play specific characters. They were hired to do whatever characters we thought of. To me, the amazing thing is seeing all our brilliant actors who can do multiple voices, do multiple voices. That's part of the fun of animation, However, to be more inclusive and hire more people, I'm completely in favor of that."

https://ew.com/tv/the-simpsons-matt-groening-proud-apu/

Hank Azaria says The Simpsons' Apu is "practically a slur at this point" and that he feels he needs to apologize "to every single Indian person" (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/simpsons-actor-hank-azaria-feels-he-needs-apologize-to-every-indian-for-apu)

The Simpsons star told Armchair Expert podcast hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman that he learned about the impact of the Apu character by speaking to people of Indian descent. "I was speaking at my son's school, I was talking to the Indian kids there because I wanted to get their input," Azaria said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "A 17-year-old ... he's never even seen The Simpsons but knows what Apu means. It's practically a slur at this point. All he knows is that is how his people are thought of and represented to many people in this country." The boy, "with tears in his eyes," Azaria said, asked the actor to tell Hollywood writers what they do matters and has ramifications on people's lives. Azaria said he would deliver the message. "I really do apologize," Azaria added. "It's important. I apologize for my part in creating that and participating in that. Part of me feels like I need to go to every single Indian person in this country and personally apologize. And sometimes I do."

Indian-American actress Mellini Kantayya accepts Hank Azaria's apology, but says The Simpsons' Apu has impacted her career (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/22/hank-azaria-apologized-playing-apu-i-accept-i-appreciate-it/)

Kantayya, whose had roles on Nurse Jackie and One Life to Live, says she cried when she listened to the podcast (https://armchairexpertpod.com/pods/hank-azaria) where Azaria said he'd like to "personally apologize" to "every single Indian person in this country" over his portrayal of Apu. "As an Indian American actress, for me the shadow of Apu loomed larger in my life than I realized," says Kantayya. "The first Indian American person I ever saw on television without an accent in a role that had nothing to do with race was myself: in a walk-on part on As the World Turns in 2004. In the early 2000s and prior, Indian Americans were seldom seen on television or in films. The few representations, like Apu, were typically accented caricatures played by White actors. The Simpsons was (and is) a phenomenon because it satirized popular culture — but the show also informed it. At the time, Apu was the most well-known, if not the only, 'Indian' character in the American collective consciousness. It was supposedly 'progress' when the industry started to allow actual people of Indian heritage to play Indian roles, however one-dimensional and often offensive. If I created a character with an authentic accent (there is no single Indian accent, as more than 30 main languages are spoken in India), the casting director asked me to do it again 'but bigger.' If the role didn’t require an accent, casting directors asked me to redo a scene with one anyway because 'we don’t know which way they want to go.' Spoiler alert: They always went with the accent. Some incarnation of Apu is what they wanted. I realized that if I didn’t deliver, I wouldn’t work. So, I watched episode after episode of The Simpsons to imitate Apu’s accent." Kantayya added that "the weight of the responsibility for how I represented Indian Americans crushed me. So I decided to refuse to play accented, stereotypical characters. I turned down auditions. I lost agents. I definitely suffered for the decision. But I’m still a working actor, which is no small thing, and every day that remains true feels like a gift."

Comedian Hari Kondabolu?? I beg to differ. Will maggie be voiced by an actual baby Santas little helper by an actual dog??