Hank Azaria Was Scared to Be a Dad…And Still Is

You know him as the voices of Moe Syzlak, Chief Wiggum, Apu, Frank Grimes and Comic Book Guy on “The Simpsons”. You also know him as the over-the-top houseboy Agador from “The Birdcage” and the bizarre French scuba instructor in “Along Came Polly”.  But now, four-time Emmy winner Hank Azaria is taking a giant turn in another direction– he’s producing a weekly webseries about being a dad that evolved out of his own fears about fatherhood. He stopped by the SiriusXM studios this week to sit down with Ron Bennington in front of a live studio audience to talk about this new project during an episode of “Unmasked”.

Although Azaria hasn’t exclusively played comedic roles, the work that he has become most known for are big comedy hits.  And although he answered a few audience questions about his voice work and The Simpsons in the hour-long interview with Bennington, the interview primarily focused on his new series about parenting.  So what made him decide to create a series all about the fears and worries of being a dad? Mostly, he explained, the idea came from his own fears about being a father. When he found out he was having a kid with his then-girlfriend, he panicked. “I was going to have a kid and I started freaking out,” Azaria told Bennington, “so I started documenting it on video. And just needed to talk about it with other guys.”  In fact even before he was even thinking about being a father, he says, he was fixated on ideas about fatherhood:

I got obsessed like 6, 7 years ago – should I have a kid? Because my girlfriend and I…it was less about do we get married than do we have a child? And I got tortured by it and obsessed with it. I felt like on the one hand I wasn’t ready to do it…didn’t want to do it. On the other hand, you’re not suppose to miss out on this.  Very selfish.  Even the dilemma was selfish. And I started a regular poker game and all the guys are dads in that game. And I started driving them crazy asking them – “Why did you want to be a dad?” “Did you always want to do it?” “Do you love your wife or your kids more?” And they’re like – “What’s the matter with you?” And I said – “If Katie (that’s my girlfriend) ever walked in here and said ‘I’m pregnant’, the only thing I’m qualified to do in life is prepare for a role. That’s all I know how to do. So I would follow you morons around and see how you did it.” And then, that’s how I would prepare to be a father. And my buddy went – “That would be a decent documentary”. And we started following dads around saying – “Do you like this? Is this fun for you?” I don’t understand why people love children. Because I didn’t. They seem annoying to me and whiny. And who would want to deal with this?

After years of stress about the possibility of being a dad, Azaria found out that he was going to be a father under particularly stressful conditions. His dog Annie, who had been his constant companion for 16 years was dying.  After spending weeks giving her 24 hour care, on the day that Annie had to be put down,  Azaria got the surprising news that he and his girlfriend (now his wife) were going to have a baby.  He started to document everything about the pregnancy, because it felt  somehow less scary, and less real–  not this impending and life changing reality.  “If I’m shooting it,” Azaria said, “maybe it’s just a movie…we’ll wrap and the baby will go into post and I won’t have to deal with it anymore.”