This Movie Legend’s Cameo on ‘The Simpsons’ ‘Lived Up to Everything You Would Expect’
Who’s the most legendary movie icon to lend a voice on The Simpsons?
Given the show’s 36 seasons, there’s plenty of competition for that accolade, including Meryl Streep, Dustin Hoffman and Kirk Douglas. But for pure Hollywood glamour, it’s hard to beat Elizabeth Taylor, the voice behind Maggie Simpson’s first word. “She lived up to everything you would expect Elizabeth Taylor to be,” Simpsons executive producer Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly in 2011. “She came in, she had a little dog, and she wore her ring, which was huge. It cost more than my house.”
Everyone on The Simpsons remembers the huge crowd of staffers that showed up on the day that Taylor recorded Maggie’s first word. “Liz created the biggest stir of any guest we’ve had on the show,” remembered writer Mike Reiss in his book Springfield Confidential. “Three hundred people packed our tiny studio to hear her record her one-word part: ‘Daddy.’”
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“Usually for the records, the room was almost empty — we’d have the cast and then a couple writers,” confirmed Jean. That day, it was standing room only.
Taylor didn’t nail her one-word role on the first try. “She had to do six takes because, as you can imagine, it kept coming out too sexy,” explained Reiss. “We had to remind her she was a baby talking to her father, not hitting on him.”
“I’m looking at the ‘Most Beautiful Woman in the World,’ trying to think, ‘What does that sound like coming out of a cute little baby?’” remembered Jean. He asked her for multiple takes to make sure editors had choices for later on (that weren’t too sexy). “She was really funny about it. After I said, ‘Okay, we got it!’ she said ‘F— you!’ in the Maggie voice.”
As long as the Simpsons crew had Taylor in the building, they figured they should try to get more out of her than just one word. So they also talked her into a few lines playing herself, which the show used in the “Krusty Gets Kancelled” episode.
The extra time behind the mic gave Taylor time to hit on one of the animators, according to Reiss. “Who is that?” she asked about animation supervisor David Silverman. “Silverman was the handsomest guy in the room,” Reiss wrote, “but then, compared to Simpsons writers, Paul Giamatti would have also won that prize.”
Jean also remembered Taylor coming on to Silverman with the sultry line, “Where have these beautiful eyes been hiding all day?” The animator was “very thrilled,” added Jean.
While Taylor is the actress best remembered for voicing Maggie Simpson, Reiss reminded us that Jodie Foster and Carol Kane have also done the job. That puts the youngest Simpson in rarified air. “The actresses playing Maggie,” he noted, “have won four Oscars and been nominated ten times.” With five Academy Award nominations and two wins, Taylor accounts for half of the honors.
Her Simpsons recording session “was just one of those magical moments,” gushed Jean. “I never thought I’d be working with Elizabeth Taylor in my life. It was really, really cool.”
