When it comes to professional longevity, no-one thinks of voice acting, and very few people can claim the staying power that Nancy Cartwright can. For 26 years – this author’s entire lifetime – Cartwright has been doing one job and doing it well: voicing television’s most notorious lil’ troublemaker, the one and only Bart Simpson.
Surprisingly for someone with such an auspicious and celebrated career, last year marked the first appearance Cartwright has made at a convention. “I’m fairly new to the comic-con experience – I’ve never been, certainly not to one in Australia,” she says. “But I thought I’d give it a go. I mean, what the heck, a trip to Australia, sounds pretty fun!”
At this year’s Supanova convention, Cartwright will be in excellent company. Appearing onstage alongside her are John DiMaggio and Billy West of Futurama fame, another of Matt Groening’s marks on the pop cultural landscape.
“Oh, I love Billy West! We’re gonna have a lot of fun,” Cartwright laughs. “You know, the idea of being mobbed by tens of thousands of people wanting my autograph and taking my photograph, that didn’t interest me so much, but after 26 years, I think it’s OK to go do this every now and then.
“And then, you know what? Because I’m just a voice, I can walk away from it all, catch an airplane, head home and it’s back to anonymity.”
Bart Simpson’s witticisms won’t be the only ones on display at Supanova, as Cartwright is also the voice behind Simpsons characters Nelson Muntz, Todd Flanders, Maggie Simpson, Kearney, Database and Ralph Wiggum.
“I can tell you this, the name of the game in voiceovers is you have to be versatile,” she says. “They are looking for people that can just do a plethora of characters… Dan [Castellaneta] and Hank [Azaria], they do like ten, 12 voices! That keeps it fresh and keeps it fun, especially when I have a scene where I’m doing dialogue with myself, so to speak, as other characters – that’s super fun!”
Unlike Castellaneta, Cartwright didn’t have real-life references from whom she drew her characters – the voice of Bart was decided on in her first audition for The Simpsons back in 1987. “It was a voice I had actually used,” she admits. “You know, for My Little Pony, I did a pony voice that sounded kinda like Bart, but when I did that for Matt Groening, it just resonated so clearly to him and it’s a simple voice that doesn’t take a lot of effort for me – ”
Cartwright’s voice shifts, and suddenly the person on the phone is Bart Simpson.
“ – to just start talking like that, man. It doesn’t take any effort at all! As opposed to – ”
Another shift, and Cartwright’s voice becomes gravelly and low: that of the owner of TV’s most iconic laugh.
“ – Nelson Muntz! If I have to do that for a whole show, my throat is pretty sore by the time I’m done,” she says, now back in her own Californian accent. “But Bart is really effortless, and that is totally the way to go in acting: it shouldn’t be an effort, it should be no thinking, you just do because you know what you’re doing.”
Thanks to her stint on the world’s longest-running cartoon series, Cartwright knows how to keep it interesting. “I keep it fresh by saying a prayer,” she says, before launching into Bart’s voice – “‘Dear God, hello, it’s me again…’ The writers are brilliant at what they do, and I just say what they write! It is fresh every time I do it; it’s a brand new show, it’s a brand new adventure, it’s a brand new surprise.”
Our conversation touches on Cartwright’s recent endeavours – a successful practice as a sculptor, and a move towards becoming a filmmaker. “I recently completed a sculpture that’s 20 by 12 [inches], it’s of Bart Simpson,” she says. “It’s called The Bartman … [it’s] installed at USC, the campus here in Southern California, permanently in the Steven Spielberg building, so I’m in great company.”
As for filmmaking, Cartwright has just returned from pitching her first screenplay, In Search Of Fellini, at the Cannes Film Festival, based on her own experiences travelling to Italy on a whim to meet Federico Fellini in the flesh.
“I went by myself and I couldn’t speak the language,” she says. “I’m a little blonde chick with long blonde hair and it wasn’t tourist season so I got a lot of attention, and I had this wild adventure! 20 years later and we’ve got the screenplay version of it… we’ll have the whole thing shot by the end of the year, and submitted to Cannes Film Festival next spring.”
Cartwright may have experienced a similar flashback moment as she performed her very own hit single ‘Do The Bartman’ to an audience of 18,000 people last year, the closing number of The Simpsons Take The Hollywood Bowl.
“It was the culmination of, at that point, 25 years of work, and it was just such a thrill,” she says. “Here I am, backed up by about 300 people including the LA Gay Men’s Choir and Yeardley [Smith] and Hank and Matt Groening and everybody in the audience up on their feet!”
With the live spectacular behind her, and now with series veteran Harry Shearer leaving the show, it’s clear The Simpsons won’t last forever. But Cartwright is unfazed by the line of questioning, her history of achievement buoying her optimism.
“I guess I can’t speak on [Shearer’s] behalf, but… we’re just gonna continue,” she says. “I have no idea how they’re gonna end it – I’m sure that they will come up with something someday, when it is all over.
“But I’m not ready to turn in those blue sneakers and that skateboard just yet.”
After this article went to print in the BRAG magazine, Nancy Cartwright cancelled her appearance Supanova Pop Culture Expo 2015. D’oh! Supanova is taking place at Sydney Showground, Olympic Park, Friday June 19 – Sunday June 21.
