Source:  The Miami Herald
Date:  June 7, 1998

Star Trak - Hank Azaria
By Robert Hofler

Hank Azaria is many things.  He is Helen Hunt's beloved. (Remember her Oscar speech.) He was Spartacus, the thong-wearing house boy in The Birdcage. And he is the voice of some 20 characters on The Simpsons. Most significant at the moment, is his turn as Animal, a thrill-seeking photographer in the summer's first megahit Godzilla. As the consummate character actor, Azaria would be the first to admit, when it comes to roles, size does not matter.

How does it feel having an Oscar in the house?

Great. I m thrilled for Helen. Having an Oscar in the house is a mocking experience. It stares at you as if to say, "You'll never get me." But it's fun. It shows up in different rooms.

Who gets more autograph requests, you or Helen?

Oh, Helen. She's very famous and I'm semi-famous. People will recognize me but not necessarily as an actor. One guy recently pointed at me in an elevator and smiled, so I was trapped. He said, "You're . . .'' And I went, "Yeah." And he said, "You're in the dry-cleaning business, right?" He must have been thrilled with the job somebody did on his drapes.

Are you committed to the Godzilla sequel?

I'm not sure. I think we all are. For the next two. But that depends on how this one does when it opens. Although I hear that the opening weekend is not as important as it used to be a couple of years ago. Lost World opened at $90 million, and went on to make $250 million, which was seen as something of a disappointment. But I guess it's enough for them to contemplate a Jurassic Park III. Godzilla is so large it is almost a parody of a big movie. I don't even know what to compare it to.

Were you a Godzilla fan as a kid?

I never saw any of the 22 Godzilla movies in a theater. I grew up in Queens, N.Y., and always saw Godzilla on Channel 9. Always. I remember arguing with my friends over who would win, Godzilla or King Kong.

Which side did you come down on?

King Kong. I always thought it was unfair, though, that he didn't have a tail to whip around.

You just signed a record deal for doing the voices for The Simpsons. At the time of the negotiations, the network was talking about hiring cheaper actors to do the voices of the characters. Did you take that threat seriously or did you see that as so much posturing on their part?

I took it seriously. It was standard negotiation. The negotiations only lasted two weeks. They were casting other actors. Maybe because we reached a settlement so quickly, it wasn't a big deal. I don't know why this got so highly publicized.

Because you set a record dollar-amount per episode for voice-overs -- $100,000 an episode.

That's not the correct figure.

Well, it was a record, true?

I suppose it is true that no one has been paid that much to do animated voices. It was the standard case: Talent wants to be paid a lot of money and management doesn't want to pay a lot of money. We reached a nice compromise. Actually, animation pay is amazingly low. Robin Williams was the most famous example of how underpaid an actor can be. He did Aladdin and got $25,000. And that genie was all him. $25,000 is standard. It's not no money. On the one hand, The Simpsons is a windfall -- to have a job like that in such a smart show and to be paid that highly, even before the new contract, it's a blessing. On the other hand, when the show reaches its seventh, ninth year, and the merchandising is over a billion dollars and in syndication each show is worth $3 million and there's 200 of them, we actors don't see one red cent of that. Not a penny. Nothing, nothing, nothing. If you look at it that way, it's infuriating. Infuriating.