Read Part One Here
By Bruce Edwin
Actor and humanitarian Nancy Cartwright grew up in Ketering, Ohio
where she excelled on the speech team and on stage as a young
actress. At around 20, she began working on local radio. A couple
years later, she transferred to UCLA, determined to be a star.
Taking the bus daily to mentor with the world's most famous voice
actor of her day- Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and many
more), she got better and better. She did some television, and
then met Simpsons creator Matt Groening. She was later cast as
the voice of what would later become the most famous modern
cartoon character of all time, Bart Simpson.
THE SIMPSONS immediately struck a chord with
viewers across the country over 20 years ago as it poked fun of
itself and everything in its wake. With its subversive humor and
delightful wit, the series has made an indelible imprint on
American pop culture, and the family members have become
television icons.
While there are many other voices in the Simpsons, the undisputed
star of the show is Bart Simpson, whose cool, yet bratty
attitude, often reflects the sentiments of children, teenagers,
and adults alike. Voiced by the legendary Nancy Cartwright, she
has with Bart and the shows genius creators, given pleasure and
laughs to millions of fans year after year.
FOX recently renewed THE SIMPSONS, the
longest-running comedy in television history, for an incredible
23rd season, bringing the series total to a hugely impressive 515
episodes.
The Hollywood Sentinel: I'm speaking here today
with Emmy Award Winning actress Nancy Cartwright.
Bruce Edwin: Nancy, why do you think The
Simpsons has been so successful and lasted so long?
Nancy Cartwright: I think two things; first of
all, the original triumverite: Jim Brooks, Sam Simon, and Matt
Groening (they three produced 443 episodes of The Simpsons from
1989 through 2009) had and still have a certain high quality
vision as to how they wanted this presented to the world. Each of
them had their areas of expertise: Jim with the three act sitcom
format, Matt Groening with his vision on who these characters
are, and Sam Simon for the intelligence and creativity he brought
to the game. When you combine all that, these guys had a certain
standard that they were living up to, and I don’t think
that’s ever wavered, you know? I think they’ve always
had that standard throughout the years, and then the second thing
being the writing itself. It’s not just the writers that
they’ve kept up to that standard, but it’s also the
visual aspect of it--the animation. And then the attention would
be on getting a group of actors together that would work as an
ensemble. I'm thinking that must have been determined early on
that it should be a very tight small group of actors that can do
multiple voices. And I’m not the only one obviously that
does that. I only do seven. The guys on the show do about twelve
or fifteen voices each.
Hollywood Sentinel: Wow, I did not know that,
that's incredible. Well, seven alone is impressive, but that's
just really amazing.
Nancy Cartwright: It's really fun. It keeps us
on our toes, that's for sure! Who am I today? Oh, I just talked
to myself!
Hollywood Sentinel: (laughs)
Nancy Cartwright: to think that we actually get
paid to do this!
Hollywood Sentinel: That's great, and that
reminds me, I heard in one interview of you, how you stated
something about money, and how if people pursuing a career in
entertainment are doing it just for the money, then they are
doing it for the wrong reason, and I want to discuss that a bit,
because I think too many people have the wrong idea about
Hollywood, and think that just anybody can do it, anybody can be
an actor, or they look at a show and think, oh, I could do that,
but I feel that there really is misunderstanding, and that many
don't get that there is true talent behind it, and if it is for
the wrong reason, like the money, then that is a
problem…
Nancy Cartwright: Well that to me is a bit of a
philosophy on life, is not to really do anything just for the
money. Your passion, that’s everything. And speaking from
the heart, as an artist, but even deeper than that,
philosophically, as a spiritual being, I mean we create,
that’s what we do! We create things, whether as an artist
or- you could be an artist in anything that you do, whether
it’s being a housewife, or working in a garden, or working
on cars, even working for the government. You should be along
that line of being a professional. To do something just for the
money, where is the happiness in that, if there is not longevity
in it? As we get older, and our responsibilities and urge to
expand and get involved get bigger and you have family and
friends and community...if you’re it just for the money,
you’re going to end up in trouble, because it will
ultimately come back and bite you, and you won’t look
forward to going to work every day.
I am so grateful, and pinch myself about choices that I’ve
made along the way, but one thing is that I was very true to my
integrity, and if you do what it is that you love, you will never
not like going to work. It’s peaches to go to work, to
actually get paid to have fun, doing what it is that you
love.
Continued on next
page.
www.NancyCartwright.com
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