Yeardley Smith Interview!

Hi Everyone!

This month's Fabu Interview is with Emmy Award-winning actress, Yeardley Smith, who is best known for being the voice of Lisa Simpson (woohoo!). Yeardley has spent 19 years performing on "The Simpsons" which is the longest-running prime-time animated series in US TV history. How crazy cool is that?! Yeardley has starred in movies and TV, too. And now she's onto books. Her novel, I, Lorelia (HarperCollins), will be on bookshelves in 2009. So be sure to check it out!

When did you first realize you wanted to be an actor?

I knew when I was five or six. I grew up in Washington, DC, and there was a woman in my neighborhood who had eight kids and she turned her garage into a theater for her kids, plus all the kids in the neighborhood, during the summer. My first role was as a living portrait of “The Girl in the Straw Hat,” which is a painting by Mary Cassat. Basically, I stood center stage in the exact same pose and as the girl in the painting while classical music played behind me. It seemed like I was there for five minutes, but it was probably barely one minute. I was so nervous my knees where shaking under my dress, until the moment the spotlight hit me. And then I knew, “Oh yeah, baby, this is where I want to be!”.

What did you do to become a professional actor? And did you start out doing voiceovers or did that part of your career come later?

I did a lot of school plays before I graduated high school and embarked on my career. School plays were a great place to develop my comedic skills, and learn how to take direction. Which just means, I had to learn not to take everything personally. For instance, when a director makes a suggestion, he or she isn’t saying that what you’re doing is wrong, they’re telling you how to take the good part and make it better. Once I got that through my thick noggin, I loved being an actor more than ever.

As far as voiceover goes, I had no interest in it. When I’d make lists of things I wanted to accomplish as an actor, voiceover was never on them. So when I got the audition for “The Simpsons” I didn’t care if I got the part or not. Thank goodness the decision wasn’t up to me! Now Lisa Simpson is one of my favorite characters of all time. Even if someone else was playing her I’d love her to pieces.

What was your very first acting job? How did you get it?

The whole time I was doing school plays I was also scanning The Washington Post for open auditions on the weekends. One of those auditions was for a loosely adapted musical version of Peter Pan, at a dinner theater in Arlington, Virginia. My first professional acting job was playing Tinker Bell in this production. I was 14 and got paid $50 a week, (when the checks didn’t bounce), which was more money than I’d ever made in my life.

I remember there was rumor at the theater that a producer was coming to see the show because he wanted to take us to Broadway. The fact that we had to cancel performances at least once a week because we had no audience never worried me. We were going to Broadway and I was ready.

Do you like being known as Lisa Simpson? And what do you like best and worst about her characters?

I love being the voice of Lisa Simpson. She’s a great girl. When you’re lucky enough to do a character for a long time (we’re about to record season 20 on “The Simpsons”!!!) you get to know them intimately, just like a person in real life. When “The Simpsons” is over I’m sure I’ll be a wreck! Not just because I’ll be out of a job, but I’ll miss spending time with Lisa Simpson every week.

So, the things I like about Lisa are that she’s smart, funny, cute, sensitive, fair (as in, she’ll consider both sides of an argument), and she has a great sense of humor, as well as compassion for the underdog. I also love it when she shows her mischievous side.

I don’t like it when she gets too preachy or becomes a know-it-all.

What was the hardest thing you've had to overcome in your life?

My low self-esteem. For a long time, I didn’t like myself very much. I thought I was fat and ugly and never good enough. So I took it out on myself by being bulimic for 23 years (from ages 14 to 37). The funny thing is, I knew I was a good actor, but I also worried that one day I would wake up and my gift for acting would be gone. Poof! As though my worthiness had run out and, therefore, my gift had been revoked.

Luckily, I’ve always been the sort of person who is interested in finding ways I can make myself more fabulous . Sometimes my stubbornness makes me slow to see the writing on the wall, but when I get it, I really get it. Five years ago, I overcame my eating disorder and stopped bingeing and purging for good. Woohoo! It was a really important step in feeling like I really do deserve all the wonderful things that have happened to me in my life –and believe me, there have been a ton!

What was the most embarrassing thing that every happened to you in your career?

The first one that comes to mind was when I lived in New York, way back at the beginning of my career. I was auditioning for a musical so I obviously had to prepare a song for my audition. I had to start my song over three times because I forgot the words in the same place THREE times. Needless to say, I did not get a callback.

What was the funniest/meanest/weirdest/nicest rejection you ever got?

I was called in to read for a sitcom a few years back, and even though the audition went well, I didn’t get the part. Three weeks later, a friend of mine went in to read for the same part on the same show, and when she asked her agent, “What are the producers looking for?” Her agent said, “They’re looking for a Yeardley Smith-type.” Can you believe that??!!!

Are you fabulous, marvelous, kooky or zany?

I’m definitely fabulous, marvelous and kooky. As for “zany,” I think you need to be more spontaneous than I usually am before you get to call yourself “zany.” So I’ll work on that. :)

Will you tell me a quote you love that I can hang up on my wall ‘o quotes in my bedroom?

“I’ve decided I need to be braver. Which means I’m going to try to do one thing every two weeks that scares me.” –Lorelei Lee Connelly, age 11; from the novel I, Lorelei by me, Yeardley Smith.

Which brings me to the next thing I’m really excited to tell you about. I’ve written a novel that will be published by Harper Collins in early 2009. It’s called I, Lorelei and it’s about a fabulous 11-year old girl named, Lorelei. (Duh.) The book is actually her journal, but instead of writing, “Dear Diary,” Lorelei writes to her recently-deceased cat, Mud, whom she’s sure would like to continue to know how she’s doing from day to day.

Lorelei’s journal starts out as a light-hearted daily log, but as her parents’ marriage starts to unravel the book becomes a poignant, still-very-funny narrative about a family in distress and a girl grappling with the ground shifting under her feet.

I’m certain if you like Lisa Simpson, you’re going to love Lorelei.

Comments

[Nandrew]

I'm a 55 year old psychiatric nurse (who is addicted to MissMatched socks). I'm so impressed that Yeardley could tell us about her history of bulemia which is such a problem for women and often such a source of shame. I hope her sharing can help others. I also love the quote which starts, "I've decided I need to be braver..." I'm trying to be braver in my own life: everything from going (after 30 years of long hair) to an extremely short haircut, to speaking up where I work about staff who are not always respectful to the psychiatric patients, to riding a zipline in Honduras over a 150 foot waterfall! By the way, I've been watching The Simpsons since the beginning and have never missed an episode--my boyfriend and I agree that it's the best show on TV.

[littlemissmatched]

You are brave! 150 foot waterfall? Wowsa!!! And thank you for loving my socks.

Here's a poem about fear by Emily Dickinson that I love. It helps me be brave:

WHILE I was fearing it, it came,
But came with less of fear,
Because that fearing it so long
Had almost made it dear.
There is a fitting a dismay, 5
A fitting a despair.
’T is harder knowing it is due,
Than knowing it is here.
The trying on the utmost,
The morning it is new, 10
Is terribler than wearing it
A whole existence through.

[Paul Ward]

Hey, great interview! I'll be looking for the book. If you have a chance to contact YS, would you let her know that PKW from writing class is trying to get in touch with her?

[Little Miss Matched]

Hi there! LOL.....thanks! Glad you enjoyed it! Not sure I'll be chattin' with her again, but if I do, I'll be sure to tell her!