Glenn Close has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and is currently going viral for her work in Lee Daniels’ exorcism flick The Deliverance, but amongst Simpsons fans, the Fatal Attraction star is perhaps best known for voicing Homer’s mom. Mona Simpson was properly introduced in Season Seven’s “Mother Simpson,” which was easily one of the show’s most tearjerkingest episodes.
As you may recall, Homer discovers that his mom isn’t dead, as he originally believed (“damn you, Walt Whitman!”); she’s really a fugitive from the law, due to her Weather Underground-esque activism in the 1960s.
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Mona inarguably fleshed the world of The Simpsons for the better, adding emotional nuance to Homer’s character, and providing Lisa with a familial role model. And Close’s touching performance is a big reason why Mona was such a welcome addition to the show.
According to the episode’s DVD commentary, the cast and crew were thrilled to have Close on board, and owe her participation to the intervention of producer James L. Brooks. Four years before “Mother Simpson” aired, Brooks directed Close (along with Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern) in his first theatrical effort, Brooklyn Laundry.
But one important moment proved to be surprisingly difficult for the star. At the very end of the episode, Homer bids farewell to his mother, after she’s been identified by Mr. Burns and forced to go into hiding again. Just as she’s entering the back of some hippie’s electric van, she looks back and tells her son, “You’ll always be a part of me,” before smacking her head on the car and shouting, “D’oh!”
Unfortunately, Close just couldn’t deliver Homer’s trademark catchphrase. “When she gets in the van and bumps her head … it’s the only line in the show that’s actually not Glenn Close,” director David Silver recalled. “She could never do it properly. She just couldn’t do it quite right.”
Close’s delivery was slower and more elongated, as if one were to just say the word “D’oh,” not shout it involuntarily, as Homer does. So for just that one line, the voice of Mona was provided by Pamela Hayden, who plays characters such as Milhouse and Jimbo.
Despite her apparent “D’oh” deficiency, Close reprised her role as Homer’s mother in several follow-up episodes. The character became so iconic that, even after Mona was killed off in Season 19’s “Mona Leaves-a,” she still kept showing up in future episodes, including Season 23’s “How I Wet Your Mother” (an Inception parody that was still somewhat heartwarming somehow), Season 27’s “Love Is in the N2-O2-Ar-CO2-Ne-He-CH4” (she reappeared as a ghostly hallucination to Grampa) and “Mothers and Other Strangers,” which was mostly comprised of Mona-centric flashbacks.
Seemingly, this specific problem was limited to her work in The Simpsons. As far as we know, no episodes of Damages were impacted by Close’s inability to yell “D’oh!”
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