Nancy Cartwright: My Life As A 10-Year-Old Boy

Bloomsbury

$36.95

Review: Gilbert Wong*

What's the weirdest question a reporter has asked Nancy Cartwright, also known as the voice of Bart Simpson, toon legend?

"Do you use Bart's voice when you are having sex?"

Cartwright does not deign to give her response, but the reader has every sympathy for the tedious repetition of questions Cartwright has been delivered since Bart became as recognisable the world over as those other American exports Coca-Cola and Mickey Mouse.

This is Cartwright's story and, by all accounts, what you read is what you get. She started out as a small-town girl from Dayton, Ohio, bitten pretty badly by the acting bug, but not blessed with leading-lady looks. She is perky with a capital P and if she was Jewish we'd have to say she has chutzpah in her veins.

In that inimitable way that we would call pushy, but which Americans admire as perseverance, she put herself forward to veteran voice-actor Daws Butler, the man behind Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound.

He took her on as protege and found her that all-important LA essential, an agent. With the arrival of Bart the apprentice surpassed her teacher when Cartwright won the part of Bart on March 13, 1987.

In this country The Simpsons have celebrated their first decade and, rightly, the show has become an entertainment icon in the truest sense of the word.

Those curious about the gorier details of producing a high-rating weekly comedy cartoon sitcom for more than a decade will be disappointed. Inevitably with this big a project there should be corpses under the carpet. Nor do we learn anything of the rumoured salary disputes. We can presume that Cartwright has a terribly big lever when it comes to contract talks - reportedly she receives more than $US150,000 ($320,000) an episode.

Cartwright isn't that kind of "gal" (as she irritatingly refers to her gender throughout the book). She is a mother, with considerable wealth and her own production company but remains the star-struck ingenue.

Of the character who brought her fortune and fame in a backhanded way, Cartwright provides no deep analysis. Bart is Bart, he's fun to do, and no, he's not meant to be a role model for young audiences, okay? So in his inimitable words, "Don't have a cow," just sit back and enjoy the gags.

* Gilbert Wong is the Herald's books editor.