“Nobody asked us to do Young Sheldon. It flowed rather elegantly from a conversation with Jim [Parsons, Sheldon]. We’d already written his backstory, and we were excited about it.”
While The Big Bang Theory remains near and dear to his heart, Lorre says there have been challenges throughout his career, including the public feud with actor Charlie Sheen (Two And A Half Men), which led to his exit from the show and Ashton Kutcher joining the show’s cast to fill the void of Sheen’s departure.
“The whole experience with Charlie Sheen was heartbreaking,” Lorre said. “What do you learn from it? That ridicule will not kill me. Everybody was, for the best of all reasons, trying to be helpful — and all we were doing was causing harm by trying to be helpful.”
Speaking of Two And A Half Men, Lorre says he fought for series star Jon Cryer to be in the cast as Alan Harper, Charlie’s annoying but loveable brother. “They didn’t want Jon Cryer. He’d been in a series of pilots that didn’t get on the air — or, if they did, they got canceled — and he got pinned with that label, ‘show killer.'”
Lorre likewise fought for Melissa McCarthy to be the lead on Mike & Molly. “In casting, you’ve got to fight for what you believe in.”
And in yet another example of fighting for an actor, Lorre championed Christine Baranski (The Good Fight) to be given the role of Maryann on the Cybill Shepherd sitcom Cybill for which Baranski won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series in 1995. Still, the actress had to audition for the role.
“Christine Baranski auditioning, can you imagine that?” Lorre marvels. “She was brilliant.”
The Big Bang Theory finale airs tonight on CBS at 8 p.m.
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