Reddit AMA Recap: harry shearer from the simpsons

Harry Shearer is coming up on 70 years old this December, but the guy stays busy, busy, busy. From continuing his stellar music comedy career to voicing Mr. Burns, Skinner, Smithers, Flanders, and a whole bunch of other lovable characters on The Simpsons, Harry Shearer is about as iconic as it gets when it comes to recorded comedy.

With the 26th Season of The Simpsons well on its way, Harry decided to drop by Reddit to talk all about what he has been up to, but more importantly give us some insight to him working on FOX’s longest running animated series. For starters, Harry divulged details on who is his favorite character to voice with a rather surprising answer:

C. Montgomery Burns. He’s pure evil. Most evil people make the mistake of diluting it. That’s just wrong.

Harry would go on to say how he came up with the voice of Mr. Burns but also notes he really doesn’t have much input in the Simpson’s writers’ room.

I created the voice from scratch, just from seeing a one-line description of the character in an early script. As to dialog, very little improv happens; TV is a writers’ medium.

One of the more memorable moments in the AMA chat is when Harry was asked what his favorite guest star story was and you would think after 25 seasons the answer would be something more recent but alas we get an anecdote about an oldie but a goodie:

Without doubt the episode on which MJ guested. He was 45 min late to a readthrough in his manager’s house, during which we were all so, I don’t know, surprised or flustered or something that there was almost no small talk while we waited. Then, during a second readthrough at Fox (we used to do those), he read his spoken lines, and nodded across the table when his character was supposed to break into a version of “Ben”. At that point, a white guy sitting across the table from him began singing that part in a very MJ-ish voice. I whispered to Yeardley, “we’re probably paying just enough for the talking Michael, but we can’t afford the singing Michael”.

Ever want to get into the voice acting gang? Well, Harry’s got advice:

I never decided to become a voice actor. I act with everything all the time. But when I started doing radio, first with the Credibility Gap and then my own Le Show, I was willy nilly acting only with my voice. Matt G was (is?) a Le Show fan, and so the call from the Simpsons seemed to spring from that. Becoming a voice actor is very hard because, due to the versatility of the people who do it, it’s a small world that’s very hard to break into. I recommend making a recording of your own voices–i.e., not you imitating my or Mel Blanc’s or Seth’s voices–and sending it to agents who specialize in voice actors, followed by intense prayer.

Harry Shearer was cool enough to do more AMA on Reddit, and you can check out the results here. The Simpsons return on Sept. 29th @ 8pm EST, check your local listings!