Longtime "Simpsons" voice actor Harry Shearer said in an interview published Monday that the "job of the actor is to play someone who they're not" when asked about the show's decision to stop casting white performers to voice characters of color.
Pressed by Times Radio interviewer Matt Chorley on whether he was questioning the sitcom's move, Shearer said, "I'm not opining publicly on that."
Shearer, 76, has voiced a number of characters on the beloved TV series, including the power plant bigwig Mr. Burns, the good-guy neighbor Ned Flanders and the black physician Dr. Hibbert.
In the radio interview, Shearer said he believes "there is a conflation" between representation in the production of entertainment, which he tagged as important, and in the specific act of performance.
Shearer wasn't available to clarify his comments, David Burns, his spokesperson, said in an email to the Daily News on Tuesday.
Producers from "The Simpsons" said in June that white actors would no longer voice characters of color on the show.
The sitcom has drawn particularly strong criticism over the character of Apu, an Indian immigrant and store clerk who was voiced by a white actor.
