Justin Trudeau is getting Simpson-ized this week, but the voice viewers hear won’t be that of the Canadian prime minister. It will be Antigonish native Lucas Meyer.
Meyer, a reporter and anchor for Toronto radio station Newstalk 1010, tweeted the news out on Monday.
“Ay Caramba! I will be a guest voice on The Simpsons this Sunday as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,” Meyer wrote.
OFFICIAL: Ay Caramba!
— Lucas Meyer (@meyer_lucas) April 22, 2019
I will be a guest voice on @TheSimpsons this Sunday as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In Nov 2017 I put together an impressions video https://t.co/D548zZNx7g for family and friends and it somehow led to this #cdnpoli 1/3 pic.twitter.com/8UZADrngnj
“Now to be clear I’m definitely not a star, just a handful of lines, but to be part of a show of my youth is insane. Thanks so much to the show for this opportunity and hope I pulled it off.”
A journalist by profession, it’s Meyer’s hysterically-spot on impressions that landed him the role on the popular FOX television show.
Speaking with SaltWire, Meyer, who grew up in Antigonish, said he began doing impressions as a kid.
“I would ... reenact scenes from my favourite movies basically, The Sandlot, Spaceballs, stuff like that,” he said.
“That kind of morphed into when I got older doing impressions of my dad for my family.”
He kept it up as a way to entertain friends and family, then back in November 2017, at the encouragement of a colleague, Meyer recorded and posted a video to YouTube showing him doing impressions of a range of well-known individuals from Don Cherry to Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Donald Trump. He posted a second video in June, this time with some new characters including Sidney Crosby, Peter Mansbridge and Stephen Harper added to his repertoire.
Though the videos got some local news coverage and garnered tens of thousands of views between them, Meyer said he was shocked when he received an email from The Simpsons’ casting producer in September asking if he was interested in auditioning for an upcoming episode.
“What they did is literally Google ‘Justin Trudeau impression’ and mine was the first that came up and it was good enough for them,” Meyer said.
He did a phone audition that day, learned he got the gig the next, and recorded his lines at a studio in Toronto later that same week. Meyer said he told his family and close friends about it, but he mostly had to keep it under wraps until this week.
The episode featuring Meyer as Justin Trudeau is titled D’oh Canada and the plot will centre around a family vacation to Niagara Falls. According to the Simpsons Wiki, in the episode, Lisa is mistakenly granted political asylum in Canada, and when Marge goes to rescue her they are forced to re-evaluate their patriotism as they “navigate the polite Canadian landscape.”
In addition to playing Trudeau, who was offered the part but declined, Meyer also has some recent history with the prime minister.
“The day that SNC Lavalin broke I had an exchange questioning him about the Globe article,” Meyer said, adding that the episode had been rejigged a little in order to make reference to the scandal that has been dominating headlines since February.
Though he’s a big Simpsons fan these days, ironically, as a child, Meyer wasn’t allowed to watch the show.
“We’ve come full circle,” he said.
“There’s always been a sort of performance aspect of my life. My father was a theatre director, my mother was a professional ballerina and it’s been part of my siblings’ lives as well. So the ability to be able to do this and to follow in a small way in (their) footsteps is probably the most special thing for me.”
Though he said he’s quite happy with his journalism career, Meyer joked that his inbox is open if any agents think he could be the next great talent.
For now, Meyer said he’ll keep working on his impressions — he’s even got some new ones in the works.
“I debuted my John Tory ... today, that was pretty funny, and I’m working on Doug Ford,” he said.
D’oh Canada, which also features a cameo by beloved children’s author Judy Blume voicing herself, will air this Sunday, April 28 on Fox and City TV at 8 p.m. ET.
