Kunal Nayyar’s habit of breaking during comedic scenes on The Big Bang Theory led to big behind-the-scenes frustrations.
The London-born actor, 44, who played the astrophysicist Rajesh “Raj” Koothrappali across the sitcom’s full 12-season run on CBS, says he “was the worst in the beginning on the show” because he “broke all the time.”
“It really pissed everyone off, but I couldn’t help it,” Nayyar shared on a recent episode of The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast. “I would also break a lot of my own jokes, which is funny. But I mean, how can you [not], Simon is a genius,” he said, referring to a scene in which he played opposite Simon Helberg’s aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz.
Nayyar mused to host Jessica Radloff about “the beauty of Simon as an actor and a performer – even a simple line like, ‘Friday works for me.’ Just the cadence, like, ‘Friday works for me!'” Nayyar shouted in Helberg’s chipper, sing-song fashion. It was working with Helberg in particular that made it “very hard for me to keep a straight face.”
Nayyar and Helberg were joined by Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, and Kaley Cuoco in debuting the show in 2007. Along with recurring star Sara Gilbert and guest stars Laurie Metcalf and Courtney Henggeler, the cast helped the sitcom, centered on a group of (mostly) dorky young men in high-stakes STEM jobs, earn immediate acclaim and secure its place on the broadcast schedule for over a decade.
The series finally bowed in 2019 without any of the principal cast leaving the show. The show has also produced two spinoffs – Young Sheldon, focusing on an aged-down version of Parsons’ character Sheldon Cooper (played by Iain Armitage), and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, a recent spinoff of Young Sheldon which focuses on Sheldon’s older brother, Georgie (Montana Jordan), and Mandy (Emily Osment), his wife.
Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty
The cast of ‘The Big Bang Theory’
The Big Bang Theory has endured in cultural memory, joining the ranks of sitcoms like The Office and Seinfeld as classic rewatch fodder. But Nayyar confessed that “it’s been a long time since I went back and watched Big Bang.”
He does, however, acknowledge that the show is “comforting” to have “on in the background sometimes.”
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Though it’s been off the air for six years, Big Bang fans were recently treated to an exciting cast reunion. Helberg and his on-screen wife, played by Melissa Rauch (who joined the series in its third season), reunited on Tuesday’s season 3 finale of Night Court, which Rauch executive produces and stars on as Judge Abby Stone. Helberg and Rauch were also joined by Raegan Revord, who played the younger version of Henggeler’s character Missy Cooper on Young Sheldon.
You can watch the rest of Nayyar’s interview on The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast above.
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