In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar spend quite a bit of time emphasizing that they're not very much like their Big Bang Theory characters of Howard and Rajesh.
Says Simon, "We have to come clean. We actually rely on real smart people to make us sound smart. Not only can I not help someone with the apps on their iPhones, but people look at me real strangely when I go to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store and ask the staff if they can help me figure out how to get my email – because I have no idea how to do it. Sad to say, but, although I’m getting better, I’m pretty much totally inept on a computer.”
To which Kunal adds, “We’re both quite capable of saying some real dumb stuff. We're 100-per-cent different from our characters in real life. People do think we are really smart in real life because of the characters we play, but, fortunately, few ask me questions about quantum physics – which would fast prove otherwise."
Follow the link above to read the full interview.
INTERVIEWS
July 28, 2011
October 21, 2009
August 09, 2009
June 01, 2009
JOHNNY & JIM INTERVIEWED BY LOS ANGELES TIMES
Today's Los Angeles Times had an interview with Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons, which was conducted by Margaret Wappler. Among the revelations, while the two actors can struggle with their lines, co-star Kaley Cuoco apparently has no problem whatsoever. "I don't know how she does it," Jim said., "but she always has every single word memorized," to which Johnny added, "She never makes a mistake."
March 05, 2009
December 07, 2008
G'DAY, CHUCK
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald
AUTHOR: Michael Idato
DATE: December 8, 2008
With the hit sitcom Two And A Half Men to his name, you'd think writer-producer Chuck Lorre would have had a leg up when it came to selling his latest comedy, The Big Bang Theory, to a television network. Not so, he says. "Nothing is different, you still have to deliver the best pilot. They don't have to be nice to me because they already have Two and A Half Men. Once they own the show, people like me are expendable. The actors are not, but me, yes."
Lorre says The Big Bang Theory, a comedy about "two twentysomething socially inept prodigies" and their neighbor, a socially adept, intellectually average girl, was successfully pitched because it was "just bent enough away from young people hanging out together".
The series stars Johnny Galecki (Roseanne) as Leonard Hofstadter and Jim Parsons (Garden State) as Sheldon Cooper, flatmates and friends with a combined IQ of 360 (173 to the former, 187 to the latter). Kaley Cuoco (8 Simple Rules) plays Penny, the pretty free spirit who transforms their ordinary lives (typical evening's recreation: a game of Klingon Boggle) when she moves in next door.
Lorre believes great actors cast themselves in roles, recalling the immediate impact of Galecki, best known as Roseanne's David Healy, when he read for the role.
"People like Johnny Galecki and, for example, Jon Cryer [from Two And A Half Men], when they walk in the room and audition, the difference is so striking that no one need explain it to you," Lorre says. "They walk out and you have this warm glow in your chest because you know you have a show. You know you're in the presence of something special."
There is a gentle tone to The Big Bang Theory that sets it aside from a typical US sitcom. The episodes, which take their titles from plays on scientific theorems, exploit the obvious - the boys' social ineptitude and Leonard's growing affection for Penny - but with uncharacteristic depth for the genre.
The series was developed for more than two years before it was in the kind of shape that made Lorre and the US network CBS confident enough to proceed with a series. As a single sentence concept, Lorre says, it crystalized into something better than other ideas on the table because he cared for the characters.
"It's a gut check for me," he says. "It's an empathic reaction. The idea worth pursuing is the idea that you might care for the characters. If you don't connect with them on an emotional level, then it doesn't really matter, you're just watching jokes or funny situations and that isn't enough."
Lorre remains executive producer of both The Big Bang Theory and Two And A Half Men and says his newborn offers him welcome challenges. "It's a different tone, it's writing from a wholly different perspective and the enthusiasm of a young cast," he says. "At the same time, I love my firstborn and I am still very close to the cast and crew of Two And A Half Men. We've got more than 100 episodes under our belts, babies have been born, weddings, divorces, heartache . . . and this family has remained intact for five years."
JIM PARSONS' WATERLOO INTERVIEW
In the November 29th edition of the Waterlook Region Record, staff writer Joel Rubinoff ruminated on the appeal of Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory.
Of Sheldon, as played by Jim Parsons, Rubinoff offers, “He’s a cross between Mr. Spock and a perpetually befuddled turtle, he’s the first sitcom character since Seinfeld’s George Constanza whose anti-social eccentricities have thrust him on the pantheon of pop-cult infamy… And as he spews out vast stretches of scientific garble with the comic precision of a young Lenny Bruce, he’s the one thing about this nerdific sitcom you can’t take your eyes off…. What makes him unique – and in a bizarre way, admirable – is his utter confidence in his own superiority despite a world that places him on the same dysfunctional plane as Rain Man and Forrest Gump.”
As to the character’s appeal, he notes, “With the exception of football jocks and people who drop out of high school to become loan sharks, there’s probably a little Sheldon in all of us, an inner need we desperately try to suppress, but can never completely extinguish… There’s something oddly endearing about this androgynous pit bull who figures – with deft sociopathic flair – there’s no problem, dating or otherwise, that can’t be solved through a combination of quantum mechanics and heterotic string theory. The fact that he’s right more than he’s wrong only makes us worship him more.”
December 06, 2008
November 25, 2008
CHUCK LORRE & BILL PRADY AT COMIC-CON
Back in July, Big Bang Theory creators and executive producers Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady met with members of the press to look back at season one and preview season two. What follows is edited audio of that discussion.
November 24, 2008
MR. MEDIA INTERVIEWS BILL PRADY
This interview between Mr. Media and Big Bang Theory co-creator Bill Prady was originally presented over at www.blogtalkradio.com in the middle of last season. At about an hour, it's definitely an in depth conversation on the show.
November 21, 2008
JOHNNY, KALEY AND JIM COMIC-CON INTERVIEW
One of the highlights of Comic-Con for any journalist into The Big Bang Theory was the opportunity to sit down for a few minutes with Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco and Jim Parsons to discuss the show, geekdom and the whole experience of being at the con. What's most interesting -- and it's a point Big Bang Blog Editor Edward Gross brings up during the chat -- is the fact that in listening to the interplay between the trio, it's obvious that the line between their reel and real lives is definitely blurring.
