Simon Helberg almost missed out on The Big Bang Theory.
“I said, ‘Thank you, I don’t have to do any more pilots. I’ve played enough nerds and now I’m working with Aaron Sorkin.'” Smart. “
At the time, he was a regular performer on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” “I didn’t really care. They had already made another pilot the year before, but it was very dark and our characters didn’t appear. It was clear that this time it worked very well. They gave me the test and… I said no. I got a call from Chuck Lorre and asked Aaron Sorkin for permission. He wrote me an email that I still have. ‘You ungrateful guy… you’re kidding me.’
Helberg still remembers shooting the pilot, but it felt like it was unlike anything he had ever done before.
“James Burroughs, the god of sitcoms, was directing it. I could hear the laughter forever. The audience laughed for a minute and a half, and he had to calm everyone down. I walked into the show and there was applause. It was so weird. ‘Here comes the guy from Sabrina the Teenage Witch!'” We were connected to what people really wanted. It struck a nerve with some in the zeitgeist. ”
Howard Wolowitz quickly became a fan favorite, partly due to his questionable fashion choices.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is too much,’ but he’s a peacock! If he’s wearing fluorescent jeans, it should work. I’m done with turtlenecks now, but I still cover my neck. It’s awful up there,” Helberg joked as he adjusted his scarf.
“He saw himself as the center of attention, the leader of the pack, the funny one in the group, the relentless Lothario. That was very different from me, but he was so confident that he was fun to play.”
None of the conversations were impromptu.
“Even in Hollywood, when I tell this story, a lot of people are shocked. They thought this was a joke on us. There was never a word like that. These writers knew the characters inside and out.”
Over the course of a record 12 seasons, Wolowitz has gone from being a mean guy to a caring father.
“It’s very unusual for it to take 12 years to tell a story. The character started out as a sleazy guy, so the writers did a good job of writing raunchy jokes. Then other writers decided to make it smarter and bring in a woman who added another dimension. Having nearly 300 episodes was a luxury.”
Still, it felt like the right thing to say goodbye to the show in 2019.
“It felt like I was graduating from high school. I had a great experience there, but I didn’t want to stay there. I felt like my time was up. There was nothing else in this world that mattered. We were fine.”
Helberg spoke about promoting “The Audacity” at the French festival “Series Mania” and said that he originally wanted to be a musician.
“I also got into playing jazz. For a guy like me with braces, it wasn’t that cool. But I was probably one of the funniest people in jazz. I always liked making people laugh.”
Although his musical past came in handy later in “Florence Foster Jenkins,” in which he co-starred with Meryl Streep, “I really embellished my piano talent. I said I could play anything,” he said, but in the end it was all about acting.
“I guess they wanted to see their names[in the lights]. They wanted people to be in front of them and have scarves wrapped around them. And they wanted to get free water.”
He recalled his beginnings and delighted the audience with a clip from the web series “Derek and Simon: The Show,” which he co-created with Derek Waters and Bob Odenkirk. It then featured the likes of Bill Hader and Zach Galifianakis, and was about 20-something guys in Los Angeles who were “nervous trying to find girls.”
“It was like ‘Girls,’ but with guys. And ‘Guys’ doesn’t have the same ring to it. But Bob Odenkirk was our hero. He was a pioneer in underground rock ‘n’ roll comedy. And he believed in us.”
The legacy of “The Big Bang Theory” is undeniable, but even one of the biggest venues for series mania can’t accommodate all the fans who want to attend Helberg’s masterclass, patiently waiting in endless lines that will go down in fest history, but lately he’s been interested in immersing himself in new worlds and “getting scared.”
In all seriousness, he lied about having French nationality to get a role in Leos Carax’s musical Annette, which felt “raw and dangerous, like making a collage short film.”
“I said, ‘I’m in the process of[obtaining French citizenship].'” Who hasn’t been a part of the process? Just before getting the stamp, there was a final chat, and a woman[at the consulate]said something about “the little man and the black hat.” I blurted out, “Charlie Chaplin?” My wife said, “You’re kidding.” “Napoleon?” I don’t know what this question was about, but well, I have a passport now, and I love it. ”
In “The Audacity,” he plays one of Silicon Valley’s geniuses who may have peaked too early as a child and is now developing an AI therapy bot for lonely teenagers.
“I have a lonely teenage daughter at home who is completely ignored,” he said.
“These characters are pretty flawed, but they’re trying to be virtuous to some degree. But we see how that’s punctuated by selfishness, and there’s something in there that we can empathize with. We see where they fall, and we’re trying to make the characters good. And people in Silicon Valley chase efficiency, which can be impersonal and deeply depressing. Martin is neglecting his daughter, but maybe he will save his future father-daughter relationship?
As the master class drew to a close, Helberg also got to meet the man who has been dubbing him into French over the years.
“It’s really a shame that you had to spend so much time learning me! And he departed from ‘The Audacity’ for further conversation. We’re locking him up in that little room over there. ”
Studio Vijerie/Series Mania
