TV Tattler: Celebrity Interviews
7 Questions With: <a href='http://television.aol.com/celebrity/nancy-cartwright/11042' target='_blank'><FONT COLOR='#2864B4'>Nancy Cartwright</font></a>
April 24 -- She's the voice behind Bart Simpson, the most beloved brat in animated history, as well as other <A href="v" target="_Blank">'Simpsons'</a> faves on the long-running series we named the top TV comedy of all time. The Emmy-winning Nancy Cartwright, who also works on <a href="http://television.aol.com/show/kim-possible/290627/main" target="_blank">'Kim Possible'</a> and <a href="http://television.aol.com/show/rugrats/63474/main" target="_blank">'The Rugrats,'</a> chatted with AOL TV's Kimberly Potts about her favorite 'Simpsons' kids, ad-libbing her famed catchphrase, and the controversy surrounding her religion, Scientology.
7 Questions With: <a href='http://television.aol.com/celebrity/nancy-cartwright/11042' target='_blank'><FONT COLOR='#2864B4'>Nancy Cartwright</font></a>
<b>1. The editors of AOL TV have named <a href="http://television.aol.com/show/the-simpsons/62653/main" target="_blank">'The Simpsons'</a> the top TV comedy of all time. Do you agree with that assessment?</b> Oh, heck yes. I think you're not going to find very many people who disagree with that one. That's nice, that's very cool.
7 Questions With: <a href='http://television.aol.com/celebrity/nancy-cartwright/11042' target='_blank'><FONT COLOR='#2864B4'>Nancy Cartwright</font></a>
<b>2. You voice so many fun characters, like Ralph Wiggum and Nelson Muntz, but is it safe to assume that Bart is your favorite?</b> You know, there's a certain quality of each of them that I really like. I like that Ralph gets to laugh just about every time he opens his mouth. He's just a walking non-sequitur. Nelson, I like that he's a bit of philosopher. He'll say, 'The thing about huckleberries is, once you got fresh, you'll never go back to canned.' I think that's pretty cute.
7 Questions With: <a href='http://television.aol.com/celebrity/nancy-cartwright/11042' target='_blank'><FONT COLOR='#2864B4'>Nancy Cartwright</font></a>
<B>3. Do you have a favorite <a href="http://television.aol.com/show/the-simpsons/62653/main" target="_blank">'Simpsons'</a> episode?</b> Well, we've done over 430 of these things, but I tend to lean toward the musicals. I just think they're brilliant and Hans Zimmer is our arranger and composer, and he's done such a brilliant job of taking some familiar piece of music and tweaking it just enough so that we don't get sued. Like the <a href="http://television.aol.com/episode/simpsoncalifragilisticexpialaannoyed-gruntcious/the-simpsons/5402" target="_blank">'Mary Poppins' episode</a>.
7 Questions With: <a href='http://television.aol.com/celebrity/nancy-cartwright/11042' target='_blank'><FONT COLOR='#2864B4'>Nancy Cartwright</font></a>
<b>4. Is it true that you ad-libbed Bart's famous 'Eat my shorts!' catchphrase?</b> Yeah, that is true. It was based on when I was in the marching band in high school, and we would march to the football stadium saying the name of the school -- Fairmont West in Kettering, Ohio -- and the drummers would play drums and we would shout, "Fairmont West! In my senior year, instead of shouting Fairmont West, we said, "Eat my shorts!" "Ba dum dum, eat my shorts!" It was our little inside joke. And one day at a [<a href="http://television.aol.com/show/the-simpsons/62653/main" target="_blank">'Simpsons'</a>] table read, it just came out, and it got such a big laugh at the table read that the next thing you know it was plastered on 30 million t-shirts.
7 Questions With: <a href='http://television.aol.com/celebrity/nancy-cartwright/11042' target='_blank'><FONT COLOR='#2864B4'>Nancy Cartwright</font></a>
<b>5. What's your process for creating a new voice?</b> Sometimes when you see a picture, I'm inspired by, believe it or not, what kind of teeth [the character] has. Does he have an overbite? Then it's a lateral lisp. Or maybe he talks in a real kiddie way. I don't impersonate much. I like to come up with my own sound. I feel at this point the challenge is, how do I not sound like Bart, Nelson, Ralph, Todd and Chucky from <a href="http://television.aol.com/show/rugrats/63474/main" target="_blank">'The Rugrats.'</a>
7 Questions With: <a href='http://television.aol.com/celebrity/nancy-cartwright/11042' target='_blank'><FONT COLOR='#2864B4'>Nancy Cartwright</font></a>
<B>6. What's the charity casino night you host, where you invite people to your home?</b> On September 20th I'm going to be hosting my third annual <A href="http://devonshire-pals.org/Monte-Carlo-Night.html" target="_blank">Monte Carlo Night</a>, which is a big poker tournament at my house, to raise money for PALS [the Police Athletic League Supporters]. It's a blast. Last year, a bunch of celebrities came, <A href="http://television.aol.com/celebrity/brad-garrett/26021" target="_blank">Brad Garrett</a>, <A href="http://television.aol.com/celebrity/camryn-manheim/45044" target="_blank">Camryn Manheim</a>, <a href="http://television.aol.com/celebrity/mary-lynn-rajskub/264343" target="_Blank">Mary Lynn Rajskub</a> and <A href="http://television.aol.com/celebrity/tom-kenny/37773" target="_blank">Tom Kenny</a>, and we had music and dancing and great food. This year we're expecting about 600 [people]. It's just a great thing, and it's my passion.
7 Questions With: <a href='http://television.aol.com/celebrity/nancy-cartwright/11042' target='_blank'><FONT COLOR='#2864B4'>Nancy Cartwright</font></a>
<b>7. I just read something today about you seeking a NASCAR license. </b> Oh, I already have it. In March I got it. My top speed is 158.2 mph. I trained, I had to do three-wide, which is driving three cars wide. I had to drive closest to the track and in the middle and up at the top by the wall, and so many laps around the track. It's not based on speed, though; it's based on ability. So I did all that, and now it's just a matter of me putting in more time if I decide to do that to qualify to actually compete.
