Jodie Foster 'couldn't believe what they had written' for her “Simpsons” cameo as Maggie
- - Jodie Foster 'couldn't believe what they had written' for her “Simpsons” cameo as Maggie
Wesley StenzelJanuary 1, 2026 at 12:30 AM
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Jodie Foster in West Hollywood, Calif., on June 18, 2022; Maggie SimpsonKey points -
Jodie Foster was a huge Simpsons fan prior to her cameo on the show: "Watched it every Sunday."
The Contact star "couldn't believe what they had written" for her when she voiced Maggie Simpson in a season 20 episode.
Foster delivered an eloquent monologue as the soft-spoken toddler in the episode "Four Great Women and a Manicure."
Jodie Foster is reflecting on her brief time in Springfield.
The Silence of the Lambs actress discussed providing the voice of Maggie Simpson on The Simpsons during a conversation with Entertainment Weekly at the Toronto International Film Festival.
"I loved the show," she says. "Watched it every Sunday. I don't know that they knew that."
Foster's adoration for the series made it easy to accept the eventual offer to voice the central family's youngest member. "When it came to me, and somebody was like, 'Do you want to do The Simpsons?' I was like, 'Yes!'" she recalled.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for ELLE
Jodie Foster in Los Angeles on Dec. 5, 2023
The actress ultimately delivered an eloquent monologue as Maggie in the season 20 episode "Four Great Women and a Manicure" in 2009. The scene came in a fictional segment parodying Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead in which Maggie defends her architectural talents after her daycare teacher punishes her for making beautiful structures from building blocks.
"I just couldn't believe what they had written for me," Foster recalled. "I mean, how amazing! The first time and only time that Maggie Simpson speaks! So great."
In the ep, Maggie says, "Throughout the ages, the finger painter, the Play-Doh sculptor, the Lincoln Logger stood alone against the daycare teacher of her time. She did not live to earn approval stickers. She lived for herself, that she might achieve things that are the glory of all humanity. These are my terms, I do not care to play by any others. And now, if the court will allow me, it's nap time."
The episode marked some of Maggie's most extensive dialogue to date, though she briefly piped up on very special occasions in prior episodes.
In a nightmarish vision in the season 2 episode "Bart vs. Thanksgiving," Maggie's older brother imagines the baby saying, "It's your fault I can't talk!" Taxi star Carol Kane provided the voice of Maggie for that one line.
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Maggie Simpson on 'The Simpsons'
Later, in the season 4 episode "Lisa's First Word," Maggie says "Daddy" while alone in her crib. Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor provided that single word of dialogue.
Additionally, Nancy Cartwright, who voices Bart, provides the non-speaking noises for Maggie on most episodes of the show, and uttered a single word as the baby during the credits of The Simpsons Movie: "Sequel?"
In non-canon "Treehouse of Horror" episodes, Maggie has also boasted various booming voices, with actors like James Earl Jones, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Simpsons regular Harry Shearer filling in as the toddler.
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Earlier this year, Viola Davis narrated the final segment of "Treehouse of Horror XXXVI" in October, and at the end of the episode, the show revealed that the Widows star's voice was emanating from a plastic version of Maggie in a post-apocalyptic future.
Most recently, Lindsay Lohan voiced Maggie in the flash-forward ep "Parahormonal Activity."
The Simpsons airs new episodes on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.
Reporting by Gerrad Hall.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
