How much do multi-voice voice actors get paid?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve been bingeing on episodes of “The Simpsons” lately and enjoying the commentary in which the writers and producers talk alot about the voice actors.

Since alot of the other voices are so distinct (Marge, Lisa, Bart) those actors don’t do many characters but one.

It seems that in almost every show, Dan Castelanetta (Homer), Hank Azaria (Apu) and Harry Shearer (Skinner) do alot of character voices for both recurring characters and one-offs.

Do these guys get paid wildly more than the the other regulars, since their voices are used more? Since acting is unionized, do they get paid per minute or something no matter what voice they’re doing, or is it more like a blanket contract for so much money and they are at the writer’s mercy.

I can’t tell if Castelanetta, Azaria and Shearer are just so good that the writers prefer them over hiring outside help or if it’s just cheaper, or easier.

2

From what I’ve read in the news, all of the actors get paid the same. They get something like $100,000 per episode. The actors went on strike for a while (which is why they were in the news), so they may be making more than that now.

3

Don’t really have a reply for the main question, but I’ll point out that AFAIK this is true to a varying degree for the voices you mention. Yeardley does indeed rarely do any voices but Lisa… (though there was pacific island Lisa that one time.) Julie has a small roster aside from Marge – mostly Marge’s close relatives.

Nancy Cartwright, IIRC, does nearly all little-boy and teenage-boy voices on the show, in addition to Bart. That’s not as many characters as the ‘big three’ do I suppose, but still quite a bunch.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled GQ. :smiley: