Starting with a bang:
Young Sheldon, a new comedy following The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper when he was aged nine, starts on TVNZ 2 this week. The series has already been picked up for a second season in the US. Jenny Cooney Carrillo reports.
The hit ‘child’ of The Big Bang Theory.
For more than a decade – after he created the comedy series The Big Bang Theory – creator Chuck Lorre has wanted to answer one intriguing question. What did the formative years of theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) look like? The answer is the focus of his new series, Young Sheldon, in which Iain Armitage (left) plays Sheldon Cooper at age nine. “I’ve always been interested in writing about the origins of Sheldon,” Lorre says. “Little hints have been dropped over 11 seasons of The Big Bang Theory, and one of them is that his father died when he was 14 and that he sounded like a really horrible person from Sheldon’s stories. “But that’s five years after our show and a lot can happen during that time. “We also have a lot of freedom with the backstory and we’re going to show that there is a great deal more to that man than we discussed in bits and pieces over the years.” Jim Parsons, who won an Emmy and Golden Globe for playing the nerdy scientist for 11 seasons, says he emailed Lorre last year to suggest they finally explore Sheldon’s childhood and he signed on as producer as well as narrator, telling the story from the point of view of the grown-up Sheldon in voiceover. “I love the idea that nine-year-old Sheldon is living in East Texas with a dad who is a football coach and ill-equipped to handle his genius, so it creates
certain cultural challenges for the whole family,” Parsons says.
One telling moment in an early episode is after Sheldon is deemed smart enough to skip grades and attend high school, his high school music teacher finds he has perfect pitch playing the piano.
“You should explore a career in music,” she urges him, to which young Sheldon responds, “No thank you. Musicians take drugs.”
Actress Zoe Perry, who plays Sheldon’s mother, smiles as she acknowledges young Sheldon is already wearing bow ties and has many mannerisms we see decades later in the grown-up Sheldon.
“He’s so smart he can teach his teachers and that arrogance of being so brilliant is always there, so it’s not surprising he’s misunderstood by his family and everyone around him,” she says.
Parsons, who is sitting with Lorre and Armitage for our interview, laughs when asked how much Sheldon’s childhood reflects his own.
“Mine was completely different,” he responds. “I was not an overly bright child. I was mediocre and I just didn’t befuddle my parents – that came much later, with my sexuality,” jokes the gay actor.
“Iain is so much more in control as a human being than I was back then. He’s very easy to talk to and we have a lot more in common now than I would have had at the same age as him. Even though I’m fortysomething, I wasn’t mature enough to be friends with him when I was nine.”
Armitage grins as he recalls being asked to audition for the Sheldon role over the holiday break last year.
“We always go to Georgia for Christmas at my grandma’s house and I didn’t know much about The Big Bang Theory because I don’t watch much television,” he says.
“I was asked to send an audition so I did it with my mom recording me holding up her iPhone, and then I got the job.”
“We couldn’t believe our luck,” Parsons says of the moment they received the video audition arranged by Armitage’s agent. “I called Chuck and said, ‘Could we really have found our Sheldon this quickly?’ ”
The Virginia native already has an impressive acting resume including the film The Glass Castle, an episode of Law & Order: SVU and a major role in Big Little Lies as Ziggy Chapman, who is accused of bullying a classmate.
Asked what he likes to do in his free time, the young actor responds, “I usually occupy my time by reading books and playing a lot.
“I don’t like video games. I love stuffed animals and I love being around people. I also think I’m good at school because I try my hardest but I’m not a genius like Sheldon.”
“Yes, you are,” says Parsons as he listens proudly to his alter-ego.
And the big question: has he ever worn a bow tie? Armitage responds without hesitation.
“Oh my goodness, so many times.”