How This Is Spinal Tap Helped Lauren Tom Land The Role Of Futurama's Amy
On "Futurama," the character of Amy Wong (Lauren Tom) works at Planet Express as an intern and as a student of Professor Farnsworth (Billy West). She's a fashion-obsessed rich girl, the daughter of ultra-wealthy parents, who sometimes resents her wealth, but wholly embraces access to it. She's also staggeringly intelligent and often helps the Professor with his wild inventions and bizarre quests. In the 2008 "Futurama" movie "The Beast With a Billion Backs," Amy married her longtime paramour Kif (Maurice LaMarche), an invertebrate salamander-like alien. In the most recent season of "Futurama," Amy and Kif are raising three children.
Lauren Tom plays Amy incredibly well, communicating her intelligence and her ditziness in equal measures. Her wealth sometimes disconnects her, and she's sometimes gullible, but she's still incredibly affable. Sample dialogue: "Fool me seven times, shame on you. Fool me eight or more times, shame on me." The ensemble would not be complete without her, and Tom has played the role since the start of the series.
At the Rhode Island Comic Con in March of 2023, Tom and the rest of the "Futurama" voice cast gathered to talk about the show and their characters. During the panel, Tom revealed that she managed to land her "Futurama" gig because of two simple things: she had a really loud, funny laugh that "Futurama" co-creator Matt Groening liked, and Groening was impressed that Tom just happened to be dating actor Mike McKean at the time of her audition. Groening was a fan of McKean's performance in the 1984 film "This Is Spinal Tap" — he played the British rocker David St. Hubbins — and Tom was vaunted by association.
Lauren Tom's kooky laughter
Firstly, the fact that Tom had an infectios laugh — a laugh that got her a job — outraged her co-star Phil LaMarr. Tom said:
"I was so nervous meeting Matt [Groening]. I have kind of a crazy loud laugh anyway, but when I get nervous it gets even louder and crazier. So when I was in the room of course it came out, and he goes like, 'Wow, that laugh. I don't know. We gotta — we'll just figure out somewhere to put you in the show. Alright, you're in the show.' So he told me that right in the room."
To which LaMarr yelled, "You got the part just by laughing!?" His outrage was exaggerated, of course, and the room laughed at his reaction. Tom also added that her romantic entanglement with another comedic actor certainly didn't hurt the issue. She added:
"Also at the time I was going out with Michael McKean from 'Spinal Tap,' and I think that Matt thought he was super cool, so I got a lot of street cred just from that association."
It would have been in 1998 or 1999 when Tom was auditioning for "Futurama." The pair must have split up shortly thereafter, however, as Tom married her current husband, actor Curt Kaplan in 1999, while McKean married his current wife, actress Annette O'Toole the same year. They initially met on the set of "Friends" in 1995 when they guest-starred in the same episode.
Tom was, naturally, quite happy to land her role in "Futurama," and noted that her performance and personality ended up shaping the character. Initially, Amy Wong was meant to be a tough tomboy character. Wong caused the showrunners to remake her a little bit.
Tough Amy
Initially, Amy Wong was envisioned as a tough-as-nails engineer with biceps and grease stains on her clothes. The "tough young female mechanic" character is something of a cliche, but it works perfectly in an ensemble sci-fi series; a similar character appeared a few years earlier on "Star Trek: Voyager," and another similar character would appear on "Firefly" only a few years after "Futurama." Lauren Tom's casting in "Futurama" pushed Amy away from cliche and into something unique to the series. She noted:
"The other funny thing is that I think that Amy was originally drawn as much tougher. Like, she was a mechanic and so she was wearing, like, a jumpsuit, a mechanic's jumpsuit, and then Leela was supposed to be the girlier one. But when I came in and, you know, I did that crazy laugh, he kind of switched their essences so that Leela became the tough one and then I was the more girly one. That's the way I remember it."
Leela, as played by Katey Sagal, serves as the pilot at Planet Express, and is quick to trash jive turkeys. Amy, meanwhile, rarely gets into fistfights, instead going to clubs and painting her toenail polish. ("Is that NOT pink? You are evil!"). Amy and Leela became fast friends and are rarely at odds. Indeed, Amy is rarely at odds with anyone, being a friendly character. Lauren Tom has appeared in every single episode of "Futurama" but six.