Hey! An article about Yeardley Smith!

[bj...@freenet.tlh.fl.us]

Spotted in my local paper, and thought you all might enjoy reading it.

-Benjamin Robinson

Her heart speaks for Lisa Simpson

Yeardley Smith has strong feelings for the animated character whose
voice she provides.

By Mike McDaniel / Houston Chronicle

Is there any other TV family -- be they Nelsons, Cleavers, Huxtables or
Conners -- that has so spoken to the issues of the day, turned the
mirror on our often hypocritical selves, taught us a moral lesson or
two, and still made us laugh until we hurt?

Who among us does not identify with Homer Simpson's just-get-by, don't-
get-caught philosophy? Who cannot admire the devotion of Marge to God,
family, and big blue hair? How many of us have imagined ourselves as
the prankster Bart?

And who doesn't cheer for brainy, sensitive, complex, sax-jammin' 8-
year-old Lisa Simpson, scholar and moral compass?

Lisa has stood pointy-head tall against Laramie Cigarettes, Whacking
Day and sexist Malibu Stacey dolls.

"She's really dear to my heart," says Yeardley Smith, the 33-year-old
woman who gives Lisa her voice. "She's a role model with principles, a
kid who never loses that childlike quality."

Smith's distinct voice causes heads to spin, so Lisalike does she
sound.

"I can make my voice lower, to sound my age," she assured, "but even
when I try, everyone goes, 'It's Yeardley, come on.'"

She was born Martha Maria Yeardley Smith in Washington, D. C. Her mom,
who's associated with the Smithsonian Institution, also is named
Martha, so her parents (dad Joseph Yeardley Smith is an obituary writer
for the Washington Post) called her Maria until they couldn't stand
that. "Yeardley" (rhymes with "hardly") won by default.

She went the New York theater route, landed a role in the film "Heaven
Help Us," and moved to Los Angeles for more acting parts. Her
distinctive voice soon won her animated voiceover parts and eventually
led her to "The Simpsons." She read for Bart, but her natural pitch
was too high for him.

The first "Simpsons" cartoon ran in 1987 as a 30-second spot on Fox's
"Tracey Ullman Show." "The Simpsons" broke out into its own series in
December 1989.

"We all thought 13 episodes and that would be it," Smith said.

Nine years later and they are still making a funny show that has both
bite and a lesson. The show airs at 8 p.m. Sundays on Fox; reruns are
on weeknights at 6:30.

It's so sharp it's no wonder so many celebrities have agreed to be on
as "guest voices."

That list includes Bette Midler, James Brown, Meryl Streep, Ringo
Starr, Paul and Linda McCartney, George Harrison, Kathleen Turner,
Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce, Gillian Anderson, and David
Duchovny, Elizabeth Taylor, Johnny Cash and many, many more.

So popular is the show that every character -- from Moe and Apu to
Marge and Homer -- has its own Web page. Smith has her own Internet
fan club site (www.wcat.com/ysfc).

It takes a day to record an episode, said Smith, about five to six
hours. The actors -- including the guest voices, when possible -- sit
on high chairs in a semicircle and record their lines.

"You get a much better performance if you're all in the same room," she
said.

After the voices are recorded, animators draw to the voices instead of
the other way around. The animation for one episode can take six
months to complete.

Voice work "is a fine-paying job," Smith confided, "but it's not
'Seinfeld' money." Smith said she and others are now making what other
actors would make in the first year of a nonanimated show.

She knows about that -- she was a lead in the failed 1991 series
"Herman's Head." She's also had parts in several other films, most
notably playing a grocery clerk in the film "City Slickers."

Her acting experience, she is convinced, will not fail her.

"I feel like I'll always work," she said. "Other people worry about
that more than I do. If you have a sense of yourself, there's nothing
to stop you."

But with "Simpsons" stories strong and money good, Smith's quite happy
where she is.

"We've had to expand the story lines because after 150 episodes, you
run out of things to say," she said. "But in every longtime endeavor,
you make concessions and expand your boundaries."

"What's important is that the shows have a moral and are well-meaning,
with family values intact."

[Accompanying the article is a picture of Lisa, standing up and reading
a book. Next to this, there is a little black-and-white head shot of
Ms. Smith. The caption reads, "A pair of characters. Smith has been
Lisa Simpson's voice for 9 years." Note that this means Ms. Smith has
been the voice of Lisa for longer than Lisa has been alive. Neat
trick!]

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