On The Big Bang Theory, he’s the nerdy everyman who scored with the hot girl next door. In real life, he’s the nerdy everyman who scored with a 20-year career in Hollywood.
Bang-up Job
Johnny Galecki might actually be proof that nice guys finish first.
Hollywood is littered with so-called celebrities desperate to seem more famous than they are and who takes up more column inches than they deserve — the Jon Gosselings, the Snookies, the Balloon-Boy Dads. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s Johnny Galecki. It’s safe to say Galecki is famous — like, really famous. As a child star, he played Chevy Chase’s son in the Christmas Vacation installment of the National Lampoon franchise, then spent six years as Roseanne’s soft-spoken David Healy — who ended up knocking up younger daughter Darlene. After the show ended in 1997, Galecki took small toles in some huge projects, like I Know What You Did Last Summer, Bean, Vanilla Sky, and Hancock. Now he stars on the improbable hit The Big Bang Theory, which somehow has convinced millions of viewers to fall in love with a quartet of socially inept physics geeks.
But despite Galecki’s success, he’s uniquely uninterested in the trappings of fame. He stays out of the tabloids, save for the occasional rumor that he’s dating costar Kaley Cuoco. He’s more likely to catch up on TiVo than commandeer a private booth at a nightclub. And he probably does not have the paparazzi on speed dial. With Big Bang wrapping up its third season this May, we talked to Johnny Galecki about nerd love, the fame game, and why he prefers to fly under the radar.
Who first approached you about the role in Big Bang Theory?
I was in New York doing a play. I was just loving being onstage and working with a live audience. But it’s hard to do that and eat well at the same time. That was about the time that Chuck [Lorre] called me.
How do you convince an actor that he’s perfect for the role of a physics nerd with no game?
“I would do my best to dispel the rumors [that I’m dating Kaley Cuoco] if they didn’t make me look so damn good”
First he talked to me about the role of Sheldon, but it just didn’t strike a chord with me at all. So I told him I was more interested in Leonard and the romantic dynamic, which is something I don’t generally get the opportunity to explore. Honestly, I thought he’d tell me to go fuck myself. But he said, “Well, then play that role.” As far as convincing me that I’d be perfect for the role of a nerd, when you’re Chuck, you don’t really need to do a lot of convincing. I knew he was too smart to just do a Halloween-costume version of these nerds. That’s a sight gag that might work for one joke, but Chuck’s shows last a decade.
Scientists aren’t usually the most popular bunch, but so many people love the characters on BBT. Why do you think people relate to them?
Unlike how people might look up to other characters on other shows because they’re cool or they have it all together, they relate to these characters on a much more available and intimate level. They can relate to that horrible date, or that horrible manner in which you shove your foot in your mouth. It’s a very even playing field.
The first pilot actually failed. Did you assume the show was doomed?
I’ve done enough pilots that I don’t have high hopes for any of them. You generally hear, “Yes, the show’s picked up,” or you don’t hear anything. But you never hear, “The show’s not picked up, but we’re going to give you another shot.” And that’s what CBS, in their infinite wisdom, did. It was shocking. But it was a great lesson, too, because when that first pilot didn’t work, it kind of created a bible for us to stick to. We had no idea how protective an audience was going to feel toward these guys. I think the [pilot] kind of rode the fence of a show that made fun of intelligent people. Once we understood how protective an audience felt, it changed the tone of the show, and it became a show that defended intelligent people.
The American Film Institute named it one of the ten best shows last year. Any shows you’d put in the Top 10?
My TiVo is boring. It’s literally Dateline, 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes II, some porn. It’s really pretty dull. I’m re-watching my DVDs of The Sopranos right now. I haven’t been too adventurous lately.
Do you think a guy like Leonard could get a girl like Penny in real life?
Yeah, I do. I was talking to Bill Prady, the cocreator of the show, about this.
We share a certain spinelessness about approaching women, because we assume that she couldn’t be interested. Then you see a photo of her in the paper two years later with someone very much like Leonard. Like, what the hell was I beating myself up for? Why was I so out of her league?
There’s a theory that it’s easier to hit on the tens than the sevens, because you have less competition.
I’d like to believe that’s why I’m not approached so often. It’s tough to go for the tens.
Before Leonard and Penny got together, your character hooked up a few times with a character played by your former Roseanne costar Sara Gilbert. Was that kind of like getting back with an ex-wife?
It felt a little incestuous, yeah. That was good fun. I’ve never had so many makeout scenes as playing this role.
Who knew? Ironic that I might catch mono playing Leonard.
Seriously. So what’s coming at the end of this season?
I really don’t know. I’m not trying to be enigmatic — I just have no idea. They keep us in the dark. We finish our live studio taping on Tuesday night, we take our bow, and they hand us a warm manila envelope with the next morning’s script. That’s generally the first we know of anything.
Well, do you want to see Leonard and Penny stay together?
Definitely. That was one of the reasons I was interested in the role to begin with. But no matter what they call it, no matter what the banner over their heads is — any sort of exploration of that flirtation is new to me, so I couldn’t be happier.
What advice about girls would you give to Leonard?
The same advice I’m trying to adopt myself, which is that you just do best to shut the fuck up much of the time. I think men, by nature, are fixers, and a lot of the time women just need to vent. You don’t have to offer up solutions on how to deal with the coworker she’s not getting along with. Just shut the hell up and let her vent.
I’ve read rumors that Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco have been doing some Method acting.
That’s very funny. I’ve read those things, too. I would do my best to dispel those rumors if they didn’t make me look so damn good.
How do you keep your personal life private when you’re on a hit show? There’s really not much dirt on you.
That’s not what my mother says. But my lifestyle is conducive to that kind of privacy, because I don’t often leave the house. I don’t want to claim to have it all figured out and be stunned on TMZ the next day. From my perspective right now — and I might eat these words at another point in my career — it seems like you need to really go out of your way to create that kind of spectacle for yourself. You know where to go, or where not to go. Clubs aren’t the only places that serve a beer. If you need a sandwich, you don’t have to go to Spago.
You did have a little drama a few years ago with a paternity suit, but it didn’t get much attention. The gossip magazines don’t seem to want to crucify you.
Well, that’s a good thing. It was a very sad affair that has to do with someone who’s obviously very unstable. There’s just not much that’s entertaining about it. [Galecki says that, to date, he’s never met the woman involved in the paternity suit, which was eventually dropped.]
Your first major roles were alongside a couple of tabloid magnets: Chevy Chase and Roseanne Barr. Do you feel like you can handle anyone in Hollywood after that?
They were both fantastic to me. Those are the stories you don’t hear. Rose was always incredible to us younger folks on the show — she just had a very specific vision of what she wanted to say and how she wanted to say it. And Chevy was amazing. During the lunch hours, he wouId take me over to the sets of Ghostbusters 2 and Harlem Nights. I was hanging out with Redd Foxx and Bill Murray when I was 13. It was really amazing.
I have to defend the people in this business. I’ve had these deeply profound — and unfortunately ephemeral — families in every job I’ve had. It’s those parasites who work in the shadows that you’ve got to look out for.
Did you learn anything from Chevy or Roseanne that sticks with you today?
I called Roseanne when Big Bang got picked up, to get her blessing and ask her advice. I realized I was going to be on billboards and on the sides of buses. And one piece of advice she gave was, “Never trust a journalist with an English accent.”
That actually sounds like good advice. Now, before Big Bang Theory, you did a Broadway play, The Little Dog Laughed. How did you prep for the full-frontal scene?
I really wish I had a wittier answer to this, but you know, it’s just acting. A little bit chillier than when you’re clothed, but it’s just acting. I was disappointed in how anticlimactic it was.
Anticlimactic — is that a famous Johnny Galecki pun?
No. The actual prep for the gig was fascinating. I played a call boy, and hanging out with those fellows was amazing. But taking your pants off is just taking your pants off. I had great hopes that it would be fantastically liberating, but… just part of the job.
Oh, well. Did you pick up anything in theater that you’ve carried over into movies?
Oh, everything. I still use the film crew as an audience. It helps me gauge if I’m convincing or not. If the crew believes that I truly am depressed or heartbroken or drunk or whatever the scene requires, then I know that I’m on base.
What do you hope you’ll be doing in five or ten years?
Wow, that’s a good question. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately — it’s a difficult thing to answer, because I really only have those specific wishes when things aren’t working out. And I’m hard-pressed to complain. I’m good at it when I can, but I can’t complain right now.
If you somehow have missed Johnny Galecki and The Big Bang Theory up until this point, you can always view all 12 seasons on the HBOMax streaming service, but you might hold off on that until you can seek insight from your friends about how this oversight might have happened in the first place. You could need medical attention.
