A couple of long-running animated series made significant changes to the cast on Friday to promote inclusion: Voice actor Mike Henry announced that he would be leaving the role of Cleveland Brown in Family man to allow a black actor to play the character, and The Simpsons He promised that in the future white actors would not express characters of color.
“It has been an honor to play Cleveland in Family man for 20 years, “Henry tweeted on Friday.” I love this character, but people of color should play characters of color. Therefore, I will leave office. ”
Henry, a white actor and comedian, voiced the Cleveland character from Family manstarted in 1999; also voiced Cleveland in the spin-off series The Cleveland Show, giving him more than 300 appearances as the character in the two series.
It has been an honor playing Cleveland in Family Guy for 20 years. I love this character, but people of color should play characters of color. Therefore, I will leave office. pic.twitter.com/FmKasWITKT
– Mike Henry (@mikehenrybro) June 26, 2020
Family man He hasn’t commented on Henry’s departure yet, but creator Seth McFarlane retweeted the voice actor’s announcement without further comment.
On Friday, The Simpsons announced in a statement that, “Moving forward, The Simpsons It will no longer have white actors voicing non-white characters. “Hank Azaria previously revealed that he would no longer voice the controversial Apu character from the long-running series; the fate of that character is unclear.
“All we know is that I will not do the voice again, unless there is some way to make the transition or something,” Azaria said in January. “What they are going to do with the character is her calling. It is up to them and they have not yet resolved it. All we have agreed is that I will not voice again. “
Azaria also voices the characters of Homer Simpson’s friend Carl Carlson and Police Officer Lou, both black, while Harry Shearer has played Dr. Hibbert of Springfield since the show began. Hollywood reporter set.
Henry and The Simpsons‘decision followed a week where Big Mouthis Jenny Slate and Central ParkKristen Bell left voice roles on their respective animated shows, where they both voiced biracial characters, for a person of color to take on the role.
Slate said in a statement: “At the beginning of the show, I reasoned to myself that Missy was allowed to play because her mother is Jewish and white, like me. But Missy is also black and black characters in an animation show should be performed by black people … In my portrayal of Missy, I was participating in a black people erase act. “
Big Mouth Creator Nick Kroll added: “We sincerely apologize and regret our original decision to choose a white actor to portray a biracial character. We made a mistake, we took our privilege for granted, and we are working hard to advance better. ”
