Voice of Lisa Simpson talks to news.com.au about the show’s eerie predictions

The Simpsons is famous for predicting the future – most notably Donald Trump’s presidency. Now one of the stars has told us how.

She has been a part of the chaotic town of Springfield for 30 years.

And ahead of the milestone anniversary of the iconic animated sitcom, The Simpsons, we had a chat with Yeardley Smith – aka Lisa Simpson – about the last three decades working on the show.

While there’s a lot we want to know from Smith, first thing’s first; how the heck did The Simpsons predict the future and one of the biggest news stories in history?

Of course, we’re referring to when they referenced Donald Trump as the US president in the episode ‘Bart to the Future’ in the year 2000 – when Lisa Simpson is president and has to clean up his mess — 15 years before he even announced he was running for office.

“They literally thought, ‘What’s the silliest, most outrageous, dumbest idea for a president we can possibly think of?’” Smith tells news.com.au.

“He (Donald Trump) was doing The Apprentice at the time. What’s really uncanny though is they animated him coming down the escalator.

“Now, Donald Trump is not a fan of the Simpsons. We’re not his cup of tea, so we don’t think he watched it and thought, ‘I’m going to copy and do it that way’.

“It is one of the best predictions.”

Donald Trump coming down an escalator at Trump Tower to announce his bid for the presidency in 2015.

This aired three weeks after, despite myths it aired beforehand.

We have to bust a myth here, as it appears Smith is mixing up her Trump predictions (and thanks to our Simpsons superfan readers for pointing this out).

While that 2000 Simpsons episode did predict Trump’s presidency, the escalator scene Smith is referring to — showing Homer Simpson behind Trump on an escalator, in a shot mirroring Trump announcing his bid for presidency in 2015 — was in fact from a 2015 Simpsons YouTube digital short.

And the 90-second short was uploaded to YouTube in July 2015, almost a month after Trump announced his bid for presidency.

Since then, many online have incorrectly listed the ‘escalator shot’ as yet another of the Simpsons’ eerie future predictions — something it appears even Smith fell for.

Foxtel is celebrating The Simpsons’ anniversary with a 21-day takeover on its channel FOX8 that will kick off on Monday, December 16 at 6am, AEDT.

Ahead of the marathon, we picked Smith’s brain for more Simpsons stories.

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WHO ARE THE BEST GUESTS STARS YOU’VE HAD?

I really enjoyed Lady Gaga. She came into the studio and recorded with us. I got to stand next to her, and she was so lovely and gracious and beautiful and glamorous and so game, she was up for anything and incredibly humble. She was really a delight. We’ve had Eric Idle from Monty Python on, he was as hilarious as you’d hope he would be. Ricky Gervais. Anne Hathaway was pure sunshine. The ones who we get to interact with for the most part are really lovely. It’s funny, sometimes you get an accomplished actor in and they’re so nervous, and we’re like, ‘You’re a superstar, what do you mean you’re nervous? It’s just us’. That’s touching, but we assure them whatever they do is all we want them to bring to the party.

WHAT DOES A WEEK WORKING ON THE SIMPSONS LOOK LIKE?

It takes up very little time, the labour-intensive part is for the writers and animators. What we do differently (to other animations) is we record it all together (as opposed to recording solo at different times). We do it that way because our executive producer comes from a history of sitcoms, and just because we’re a cartoon … you’re still having conversation. For me, I prefer it. The way you say a line is going to influence the way I respond. We do a table reading on Thursdays. It takes one hour. They hear what jokes work, and based on that, they go back and do a rewrite, and 10 days later we record it. We do each scene four times, and they compile the best of that session. It can take anywhere from nine months to a year to complete one episode. And then I don’t see it until you guys see it. It’s a great little present to see it, as it’s been so long since we recorded it.

Actor, panel moderator and voice of Lisa Simpson, Yeardley Smith. Picture: Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival

IS THERE AN EPISODE OR PLOT YOU WEREN’T A FAN OF?

I never like it when Homer is too mean. I don’t like it. And I don’t like it when people are mean to Lisa and she doesn’t have retort. I always fight those battles (with producers), and I might not win. We’ve all discovered Lisa is the moral compass and has the biggest heart. When people are really mean to Lisa, fans get upset. Nobody likes it. And I also feel like mean humour is lazy humour.

WE READ YOU WEREN’T HAPPY WITH YOUR SUCCESS AT ONE POINT. HOW COME?

I think for a long time I knew I wanted to be an actor. I had a specific idea of what success looked like, and when it didn’t match that picture I felt somehow it didn’t count, and certainly voiceover had never been on the list of things I wanted to do. Part of that, because I was teased so mercilessly about my voice as a child, I didn’t consider it an asset. That’s the irony of all ironies. But for a long time I blamed success because it hadn’t made me happy, and I didn’t understand why.

HOW DID YOU GET THE PART OF LISA SIMPSON?

My agent said I got an audition. I had done a tiny play in a tiny theatre in LA. I think 17 people saw it, luckily one of them was casting The Simpsons. I went to the audition because I never turned down an audition unless it was awful. And here we are, thank god I did it. It saved me.

Yeardley and Lisa.

WHY DO YOU THINK THE SIMPSONS HAS RESONATED FOR SO MANY YEARS?

The Simpsons … we’re flawed. People recognise themselves in that family. Back in the ’90s in our second season, George Bush said, ‘We need more families like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons’. We were controversial, they didn’t like kids watching the show. And now, we are so mild. It’s a bitter time here in the US, and we are a ray of sunshine, so in some ways I don’t think we have changed but the world has changed. We’re this multi-generational thing. It’s quite comforting. There’s nostalgia, colours, funny jokes and a wonderful family. It’s lightning in a bottle.