Simon Helberg almost missed out on \u201cThe Big Bang Theory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI went: \u2018Thank you, I don\u2019t need to do another pilot. I played enough nerds and now I work with Aaron Sorkin\u2019.\u2019 Smart.\u201d<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n At the time, he had a recurring role in \u201cStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip.\u201d \u201cI didn\u2019t really care. They already had another pilot the previous year, very dark and without our characters. This time, it was clear it went very well \u2013 they wanted me to test and I said no. Chuck Lorre called, so I asked Aaron Sorkin for permission. He wrote me an email that I still have: \u2018You ungrateful piece of\u2026 Just kidding\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Helberg still remembers shooting the pilot, which felt different from anything else he had done before.<\/p>\n \u201cJames Burrows, the god of sitcoms, was directing. I kept hearing these laughs going on and on and on. The audience laughed for a minute and a half, and he had to calm everyone down. When I entered the show, there was applause. It was so strange: \u2018Here he is, the guy from \u2018Sabrina the Teenage Witch\u2019!\u2019 We were connecting with something people really wanted. It was hitting some nerve in the zeitgeist.\u201d<\/p>\n Howard Wolowitz quickly became a fan favorite \u2013 also because of his questionable fashion choices.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember thinking: \u2018This is over the top.\u2019 But he\u2019s peacocking! If you are wearing fluorescent jeans, it just has to work for you. I pass on turtlenecks now, but I still hide my neck. It\u2019s hideous over there,\u201d joked Helberg, adjusting his scarf.<\/p>\n \u201cHe thought of himself as the center of attention, the leader of the pack, the funny one in the group and a relentless lothario. That was not exactly who I was, but he was fun to play because he was very confident.\u201d<\/p>\n None of the dialogues were improvised.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people are shocked when I tell them, even in Hollywood. They assumed these were our jokes. Not a word of it. These writers knew the characters inside and out.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the course of a record 12 seasons, Wolowitz went from a sleazebag to a caring father.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s such a rare thing to get 12 years to tell a story. This character started as a sleazy guy, so the writers wrote good sleazy jokes, then other writers decided to make it smarter and bring women in who added another dimension. It was the luxury of having almost 300 episodes.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, saying goodbye to the show in 2019 felt right.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like graduating high school. I had a great experience there, but I didn\u2019t want to stay there! We felt like it was time. There wasn\u2019t anything else to do with this world. We were good.\u201d<\/p>\n Helberg, talking at French festival Series Mania to promote \u201cThe Audacity,\u201d wanted to be a musician first.<\/p>\n \u201cI even got into playing jazz, which wasn\u2019t that cool for a guy like me \u2013 with braces. But I was probably one of the funnier people in jazz. I always enjoyed making people laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n His musical past later helped him in \u201cFlorence Foster Jenkins\u201d with Meryl Streep \u2013 \u201cI really embellished my piano abilities. I told them I can play anything\u201d \u2013 but ultimately, it was all about acting.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess I wanted to see my name up [in lights], have people in front of me and wear a scarf. And get free water.\u201d<\/p>\n Recalling his beginnings, he delighted the audience with a clip of web series \u201cDerek and Simon: The Show,\u201d which he co-created with Derek Waters and Bob Odenkirk. Later featuring the likes of Bill Hader and Zack Galifianakis, it was about twentysomething guys in L.A. \u201ctrying to find girls and being neurotic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like \u2018Girls,\u2019 but with guys. And \u2018Guys\u2019 does not have the same ring to it. But Bob Odenkirk was our hero, he was at the vanguard of underground, rock\u2019n\u2019roll comedy, and he believed in us.\u201d<\/p>\n While the legacy of \u201cThe Big Bang Theory\u201d is undeniable \u2013 even one of the biggest venues at the Series Mania couldn\u2019t accommodate all the fans who wanted to attend Helberg\u2019s masterclass, waiting patiently in a never-ending line that\u2019s bound to go down in the history of the fest \u2013 these days he\u2019s interested in throwing himself into new worlds and \u201cbeing scared.\u201d<\/p>\n He means it \u2013 he lied about having French citizenship to get a role in Leos Carax\u2019s musical \u201cAnnette,\u201d which felt like \u201cmaking a short film in collage: raw and risky\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI said: \u2018I\u2019m in the process [of getting French citizenship].\u2019 Because who isn\u2019t in a process? Right before I got the stamp, there was this final chat, and the lady [in the consulate] said something about \u2018a little man and a black hat.\u2019 I blurted: \u2018Charlie Chaplin?\u2019 My wife went: \u2018He\u2019s kidding.\u2019 \u2018Napoleon?\u2019 I don\u2019t know what this questions was even about, but boom, I have the passport now and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n In \u201cThe Audacity,\u201d he plays one of Silicon Valley\u2019s geniuses who might have peaked too early as a kid and now develops an AI therapy bot for lonely teenagers.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though he has a lonely teenage daughter at home whom he completely neglects,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese characters are pretty flawed, but they are trying to be virtuous to some extent. But we see how that gets interrupted by selfishness, and that\u2019s what we can relate to. You see where they get corrupted. You always look for what makes a character good and what they are after. And people in Silicon Valley are after efficiency, which lacks humanity and can be horribly depressing. Martin neglects his daughter, sure, but maybe he will save future father-daughter relationships with his bot?\u201d<\/p>\n As the masterclass drew to a close, Helberg also got to meet the man who has been dubbing him into French for years.<\/p>\n \u201cI am so sorry you had to spend so many hours learning me! And off he goes, to do more dialogue from \u2018The Audacity.\u2019 We keep him in a small room over there.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Simon Helberg almost missed out on \u201cThe Big Bang Theory.\u201d \u201cI went: \u2018Thank you, I don\u2019t need to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[56504,39385,18,117,180705,19,17,180704,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-397198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-aaron-sorkin","9":"tag-chuck-lorre","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-howard-wolowitz","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-simon-helberg","16":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116269300266509667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}