Pamela Hayden has her reasons for leaving “The Simpsons.”
“How many actors can say they’ve worked on a show for 35 years straight?” the 70-year-old voice actress told Variety on Sunday, the day her final episode on the show aired. “That alone is amazing. But it was time for me to devote my time to other creative endeavors that I have, like filmmaking.”
“It was a tough decision,” she added, “but I feel like it was the right one.”
Hayden has voiced various characters, including Bart’s best friend, Milhouse Van Houten, on the animated show since 1989.
She announced her retirement four days before last night’s episode.
“It’s just not like anything I’ve ever worked on,” Hayden told Variety. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime job on a once-in-a-lifetime show. But being an actor, I think you’re kind of used to taking risks. That’s the kind of person I am. I’m not about playing things safe. And there were other things I wanted to do. I think you throw it against the wall and see what sticks.”
Hayden said that she’s learned a lot from playing Milhouse for over three decades on television.
“What I liked about Milhouse is even though he gets kicked around, he always feels like tomorrow’s going to be a better day. Whether it is or not. And I think that’s great. It’s a good analogy for life,” she shared.
“The Simpsons” producers will be holding auditions to find replacements for Milhouse and Hayden’s other characters, which include Springfield Elementary bully Jimbo Jones, Ned Flanders’ son Rod, Chief Wiggum’s wife and Ralph Wiggum’s mom Sarah and Lisa Simpson’s friend Janey Powell.
“I know they won’t kill them off because it’s a comedy,” she said. “You don’t want to kill off a 10-year-old character!”
Hayden also shared her advice for the new voices of Milhouse and company, saying, “It’s a sticky wicket in the sense that, I don’t think it’s ever good to just do an impression. It is a difficult task put your stamp on a character, but to still make it sound like the character that has already originated. You want them to bring their own gift to the party.”
Now that she’s left “The Simpsons,” Hayden is focused on her documentary “Jailhouse to Milhouse,” which is about her troubled upbringing that involved an abusive boarding school and juvenile jail.
Hayden said that she hoped the project — which premiered at the Heartland Film Festival last year — would “inspire people who have fallen through the cracks to still have hope.”
“It’s about my life,” she told Variety, “and there were a few really hanky years there when I was younger. When I speak to at-risk girls, I say, ‘If I can do it, you can do it.’ Because that’s true. I’m no different than them.”
“The Simpsons,” currently in its 36th season, airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.