Even if you don’t know Harry Shearer’s face – though fans of Spinal Tap will certainly be familiar with one of the great American satirists and comedy actors of the last five decades – you will have heard his voice. In The Simpsons, he plays Mr Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner and more. “Mr Burns,” he says immediately when I ask his favourite character. “Pure evil is always best. When you play it, it’s a gift.”
While Shearer has been critical of the long-running animated sitcom’s quality over the last 20 years – “up and down” is how he puts it today – its 90s peak has aged remarkably well. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen it,” says Shearer. It’s on the TV all the time? “That’s what I hear! But it’s good to hear you say that.”
Sporadic press stories that he is fed up being on The Simpsons are, he insists, not true. “No, I still enjoy playing all these characters. It was the reason I did this instead of some other television show where you’re pretty much limited to one character. I liked the idea of the variety of characters, and I still like that.”
That said, he says the early days were more fun, back when episodes were recorded with all voice actors together in the same room. “It was one of the reasons I wanted to do it in the first place. Because normal animation is always done one part at a time, so you’re never hearing what the other actors are saying. It was appealing to be doing what I regard as real acting, which is hearing the other performer and taking that into account in your performance.”
