There are two things you need to know about fame …
One: Once you're famous, everything you do from now on, people are going to know about.
Two: Everything you've done in the past, yes, even the things that you're most embarrassed about,
those things are going to come out of the shadows
and stand right next to you in your new-found spotlight.
Why did we bring this up? Well, we're diving headfirst into the PAST of the cast members of
the beloved sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. Who dabbled in the world of Vampires?
Who didn't even plan on being an actor? Who had locked lips before the show even began?
Who had roles in films that were so small, you wouldn't have even noticed them?
We've got all the answers right here, so don't go anywhere,
Juicers. And Remember to subscribe to Rumor Juice!
Kaley Cuoco
The actress stole our hearts as Penny.
But did you know her character has no last name, it's literally just Penny? That's it. For some
mysterious reason, her character was never given a last name. Strange since basically,
every other cast member has a last name. We'll let that simmer for a little bit.
The actress had a young start in the world of TV, at the age of 7,
she landed her first role on television as Connie in the 1992 TV movie Quicksand: No Escape.
She's also far more than just a pretty face and graduated from high school at the age of 16!
She's also quite the sportswoman. Before she decided to make the full time move into the
world of acting, Kaley was even ranked nationally as an amateur tennis player.
Did you know that the actress was originally denied the role of Penny
because they told her she was too young? Kaley initially auditioned for the show
two years before it aired but didn't get the part.
Kaley didn't hear anything for a while, and then later found out that they were re-shooting
the pilot of the show, The actress ended up re-reading for the role as our beloved Penny
and was cast in the show. And so the Big Bang family as we know it was born.
We're not sure why the show's original pilot didn't work out, but we'd like to take a moment
to express how grateful we are for it because the show would not have been the same without Kaley.
Johnny Galecki
Johnny, or you might know him as Leonard Hofstadter,
actually has a fairly colorful past in TV and film. He was introduced into the
world of acting when he was as young as 12, on a CBS miniseries Murder Ordained.
He even guest-starred on a show with his Big Bang cast member, Mayim Bialik, also known
as Amy Farra Fowler. And they may have done a little more than just act on screen together.
Believe it or not, Kaley isn't the only person that the actor has locked lips with.
Okay, before we even get into Johnny's past,
you might not know that he and fellow cast member Kaley Cuoco dated for two years? They met on set,
and Kaley said that she was besotted with the actor when she was introduced to him.
The couple dated for two years and ended things in 2009.
The split was totally amicable, though! And the pair remain good friends. Phew, thank
goodness for that, can you imagine if they had a terrible breakup and couldn't stand each other?
Maybe then Big Bang would have turned out completely differently!
Okay now back to Johnny and Mayim …
Let's set the scene … It was way back in 1991,
which is over 15 years before the first episode of Big Bang Theory aired.
Johnny featured on an episode of Blossom when he and Mayim were just 14 years old,
and the pair shared their first on-screen kiss together. Who would have thought that
more than a decade later, they would have shared the screen once again? What a small world, folks.
Jim Parsons
Let's face it, if it weren't for Sheldon Cooper,
there would be no Big Bang Theory. That's a fact, and we're willing to fight you on it,
although we highly doubt there will be anyone who thinks otherwise.
However, our dear Jim had an incredibly tough time getting onto screens before he was given
the role of Sheldon. It seems that he just kept running into bad luck. It's not that
he wouldn't get cast, so it was to no fault of Jim. But none of the shows he had been cast in
had managed to be picked up and broadcasted. The actor even estimated that he'd auditioned
for anywhere between 15 and 30 TV pilots before scoring the role of Sheldon Cooper.
Jim scored his first acting credit in 2002 when he was cast in the TV series called,
Ed. You might even remember his small role in the film Garden State in 2004.
BUT what you might not know, is that right before Jim was cast in Big Bang Theory,
he had auditioned for another show … another legendary comedy show, in fact.
The actor revealed that he had auditioned for The Office, but did not reveal who he went in
to read for. Hmmm. Who do you think it was? Do you think he would be cast as Michael, Jim, or Dwight?
Mayim Bialik
You know already that Mayim spent some of her time in the 90's smooching her co-star Johnny,
but that's not the only thing she was doing.
She started off at the age of 13,
starring in the film Beaches as the younger version of Bette Midler's character.
But before she made a name for herself on that hit NBC show, she was in the Bette Midler film
Beaches as a young CC. She also appeared on The Facts of Life as Jennifer Cole. She snagged a
few small roles on other TV shows, but it wasn't until she landed her role in the hit 90's show,
Blossom that her career started to take off. She played the role of Blossom Russo for 5 years.
And get this, she doesn't just act like a scientist on The Big Bang Theory, she
IS one. While her career slowed down, the actress made sure to keep herself busy and
went on to get a Ph.D. in neuropsychology. That's right, she's a REAL Neuropsychologist.
We're sure that came in super handy when acting in a show like Big Bang.
Simon Helberg
You couldn't help but love Howard Wolowitz,
token jew with his pants that were always too tight and a belt buckle that was always too big.
Simon, however, wasn't planning for a career on TV. He was hoping for a career in music,
in a boy band to be more precise. The actor confessed that he was most excited by the
hair that most boy bands had at the time, and unfortunately thought he might have
had the hair, he admitted he lacked the singing and instrumental talent.
Fans can't help but feel relieved that Simon didn't end up as a member of the Backstreet Boys,
but rather as part of the Big Bang Family, where he made the
character of Howard Wolowitz come to life and totally unforgettable.
Melissa Rauch
If you haven't seen interviews with Melissa Raunch, you're not going to believe that
her high pitched tone as Bernadette Rostenkowski is not her real voice.
Do you need a moment for that to sink in? We're sorry if some of you are a little disappointed.
The actress admitted to being known as the class clown when she was still in school.
"I would watch sets of, like, Whoopi Goldberg,
and do things that were wildly inappropriate that I really didn't understand."
She also admitted, her parents were often called into her school
due to her raunchy jokes and wild behavior.
She struggled to get into Hollywood, facing endless rejection. She even auditioned as a
hand model and still didn't make the cut! But in the meantime, she married her college sweetheart
and they partnered up together as comedic writers and tried to produce their own content.
The actress confessed that writing was her saving grace during the times she was facing
the most rejection because it kept her busy and motivated to continue working.
Melissa finally booked her first role as Megan, in the movie Delirious in 2006.
Then a few years later, she landed a role in the vampire-run world of True Blood
as Summer, who is hopelessly in love with Hoyt.
Finally, in the 3rd season of Big Bang, she landed a small guest appearance on
the show as a girl that goes on a date with Howard. That's all it was supposed to be,
but then the writers decided to make Bernadette's relationship with Howard more serious. That was
when the actress realized she'd landed a recurring role in one of the longest-running sitcoms ever!
Kunal Nayyar
Everyone loved the hopeless romantic Raj Koothrappali, he was hopelessly
falling in and out of love faster than most of the fans could keep with. He
loved his dog and made all the fans feel like they'd want to have a dinner cooked by Raj.
Kunal began to dabble with acting through musicals and plays at a very young age. He also played
badminton for his school team and even competed at the State level in the region of North India.
The actor has a Master of Fine Arts, but it wasn't until his role in Big Bang that he got
any attention. Similar to his co-star Jim Parsons, Kunal didn't have many acting credits
before he was cast in Big Bang. The only two roles he'd booked was in the 2004 movie
S.C.I.E.N.C.E. as the pizza guy, and then he was in an episode of NCIS as Youssef Zidan.
His role as Raj got the actor onto the Fobes list of the world’s
3rd highest-paid actor between 2015 and 2018. So not only was Raj stinking rich but at one
point Kunal was also raking in almost $24 million a year. Now that's a lot of cash!
So, what did you learn today? That everybody's got a past and there is indeed life before fame. Fans
all over the world are so grateful for the show because it's gifted them with endless laughs, many
emotional moments and most of all made them fall in love with characters that could not have been
portrayed by any other actor. The Big Bang Theory is a one of a kind show, and there's a reason
it's won countless awards and broken records as one of the most-watched comedies of all time.