Hank Azaria has opened up about the controversy surrounding him voicing Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in The Simpsons.
As many fans of the primetime cartoon show will know, Apu is an Indian immigrant character who runs the popular convenience store, the Kwik-E-Mart. He is known for his catchphrase, "Thank you, come again".
The original voice of the character was provided by 59-year-old Azaria - who made his Apu debut in 1989 and lasted for 29 seasons. However, the actor and show creators were then called out by comedian Hari Kondabolu - who's of Indian descent - in the 2017 documentary, The Problem With Apu.
Kondabolu expressed his frustration over the real-life consequences of the character’s existence and Hollywood's constant depictions of South Asians.
This resulted in Azaria announcing in 2020 that he will be stepping down from the role.
Azaria last apologized for voicing the character on Dax Shepard’s popular Armchair Expert podcast in 2021, where he said: "Part of me feels like I need to go to every single Indian person in this country and personally apologize. And sometimes I do," as cited by The Independent.
However, he didn't have a public conversation with the 40-year-old writer until recently when the pair addressed the controversy in NPR’s podcast Code Switch, in the recent episode titled, 'The Fallout of a Callout'.
The actor confessed that he was "afraid" to talk to Kondabolu about the problem and avoided his requests to be a part of the documentary.
"I was really freaked out," Azaria told him on the podcast. "You know, you’re a comedian, and some of your stuff is gotcha, you know, and has bite to it, as well it should. It’s hilarious and it makes good points. Being on the other end of that really, really scared me, you know?"
"I don’t know if I would have felt safe to have the conversation privately, let alone roll them, you know, we’re going to record it," he added.
Azaria was asked by the host if he believed that his portrayal as Apu had allowed there to be a space for the "dehumanization" of Brown people in America.
"Yeah I have thought about that," he said. "And it’s important to point out that pre-Hari, I had not thought about that stuff… I had to be told 54 times before it sunk in. I think about that all the time now."
He continued: "Through my role in Apu and what I created in Hollywood messaging – which is a big deal in this country and around the world – I helped to create a pretty marginalizing, dehumanizing stereotype."
The voice actor recalled reading a news story about a Middle-Eastern man who was attacked and called Apu by his assaulters, and said: "I think if I had any doubts at that point… I got the answer. Apu had become a slur," to which Kondabolu agreed by saying: "When something is used in hate violence, it’s pretty clear."
Since Azaria stopped playing the character, Apu has been sidelined from the series.
