‘The Simpsons’ Star Harry Shearer Stopped Voicing a Black Character and Then Started Hearing ‘Folk Say the Show Has Become Woke in Recent Years’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director Harry Shearer has voiced dozens of characters on Fox’s “The Simpsons,” from Mr. Burns to Ned Flanders and Principal Skinner, but he was replaced as the voice of Springfield physician Dr.
Hibbert when producers of the show vowed in 2020 to no longer have white actors voice characters of color. Shearer recently reflected on the change during an interview with The Times of London. “Folk say the show has become woke in recent years and one of my characters has been affected,” Shearer said. “I voiced the Black physician, Dr.
Hibbert, who I based on Bill Cosby. Back then he was known as the ‘whitest Black man on television.’ Then, a couple of years ago, I received an email saying they’d employed a Black actor, who then copied my voice.
The result is a Black man imitating a white man imitating the whitest Black man on TV.” Shearer appeared to question his re-casting, as he always tried to make Dr.
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