N NANCY GETS REEL
Simpsons’ star Cartwright’s Fellini’ movie heads to the big screen
ANCY Cartwright won an Emmy for her work as Bart Simpson without ever being nominated for the award. Back in 1992, Cartwright and fellow “The Simpsons” voiceover actors Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Julie Kavner (Marge), Yeardley Smith (Lisa) and Marcia Wallace (Mrs. Crabapple) were given Emmys by the TV Academy’s Governors Board. “There was no voiceover category at the time and, in fact, no other primetime animated shows were competing withwit ‘The Simpsons’ at the time,” says Cartwright.Ca “We went to the ceremony and all got Emmys but it wasn’t by ... membersm of the academy.” That all changed when the voiceover category was established in 2009, but it wasn’t until this year that Cartwright snared an Emmy nod for “The Simpsons,” which kicks off Season 29 Oct. 1 on Fox. “All these years I’ve submitted myself I was never nominated. I got a little apathetic about it,” she says. “It was more like, ‘OK, I’ll submit something, but I don’t know what’s going to happen.’ ”
Cartwright, 60 spoke to The Post about her Emmy nomination and about “In Search of Fellini,” a big-screen movie she co-wrote (with Peter Kjenaas) and co-produced. It opens Friday and stars Ksenia Solo, Maria Bello, and Mary Lynn Rajkskub and is based on Cartwright’s 1995 one-woman show — which, in turn, was based on her 1985 journey to Italy (alone) in a bid to meet famed director Federico Fellini, whose movies Cartwright fell in love with while living in Ohio.
What “Simpsons” episode did you submit for Emmy consideration?
“Looking for Mr. Goodbart,” which was Bart interviewing senior citizens to be his grandmothers. It was the sweetest episode. Interestingly enough, this past year I became a grandmother — my son, Jack and his wife had a little baby girl who’s a year old now. It’s sort of like there are these little “Simpsons” spies following me around to see what I’m doing for a living. I mean Bart’s a grandmother. That’s hilarious.
What’s your favorite Fellini movie?
“La Strada.” That’s the only one that makes sense to me, to be honest. It actually has a beginning, a middle and an end. His films are a little bizarre.
What was it about Fellini’s movies that sent you on your journey to Italy?
A lot of people said to me, “You had a lot of courage to go do that.” But at the time I didn’t know that was courage: I was in my 20s and, to add to that, I was really naive. When you see the film, some of the decisions I made ... you’re going to say, “Did that really happen?” Yes — almost every incident you see in this film really happened. In 1985 it was like, what’s to worry? Just go and have a good time. I was by myself, I couldn’t speak the language and was counting on the kindness of strangers. I made some really stupid decisions and got myself in a predicament — I ended up being accosted by an Italian guy. On the other hand, a little bit of a love situation occurred where a guy proposed to me.
How important was casting the role of Lucy (Ksenia Solo), who’s based on you?
It was crucial. We had 4,000 submissions for that part. There was another casting director in Italy and in the US we took all the submissions and broke them down over months ... and eventually it came down to four people. For any artist reading this: Ksenia had such a passion for this piece and she really was such a fan of Fellini’s work. She’s not an A-list actress, but she’d been an ensemble player for years and her body of work represented a certain level of professionalism that the other actresses didn’t have.