It is not unusual for actors to maintain props after they end a venture, and in accordance with Melissa Rauch, who performed Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on “The Huge Bang Concept,” she stored one essential a part of her character: her eyeglasses.
In an interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet within the fall of 2021, Rauch revealed that she nearly returned the glasses she wore to play Bernadette till one of many present’s govt producers stopped her. “I used to be so excited,” she recalled. “I used to be about handy them again and Steve Molaro, the manager producer, stated, ‘I believe you must have these.’ I am so glad that he did.”
“I keep in mind once I took the glasses off for Simon,” Rauch continued, referencing her on-screen husband Howard Wolowitz (performed by Simon Helberg) earlier than stressing how emotional the second was when she acquired her glasses. “I used to be so pleased they let me take them house with me so I can have them in a particular field. I noticed as we had been capturing the final scene, I used to be like, ‘Oh, that is the final time I’ll be utilizing this voice.’ It is positively like saying goodbye to a good friend. I will at all times keep in mind that second of realizing it is a goodbye to a personality. I at all times stated Bernadette was kind of like an enormous sister in some ways to me. She kind of did issues just a few steps forward of me in life basically…”
Additionally, enjoyable reality: They don’t seem to be actual glasses. “They really haven’t got lenses in them so it is not like I can use them,” Rauch advised the outlet. “They’re entire lensless frames. That was actually a trick of the eyes on Huge Bang was that that they had no lenses.”
Melissa Rauch truly introduced glasses as a prop when she auditioned for The Huge Bang Concept
In Jessica Radloff’s 2022 ebook The Huge Bang Concept: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Sequence, Melissa Rauch revealed that she saved fairly just a few issues associated to “The Huge Bang Concept” … and within the course of, she additionally advised followers that she was the one who got here up with the concept that Bernadette ought to put on glasses within the first place, in a way. “I saved the gown I wore to the audition, which was tremendous near what ended up being Bernadette’s look, and a inexperienced cardigan,” Rauch started earlier than addressing the glasses.
“I wore glasses, regardless that it did not say Bernadette wore glasses,” she continued. “There have been so many women auditioning, so I believed, I must do one thing somewhat totally different. I had crappy $10 prop glasses within the globe compartment of my automobile for auditions, so I made a decision to throw ’em in my bag simply in case. And once I received there, there have been so many ladies auditioning that I believed, I haven’t got a shot in hell. However I placed on the glasses as a last-minute determination, and it wasn’t till I received the function and was about to do the desk learn just a few weeks later when [casting directors] Nikki Valko and Ken Miller despatched a be aware to my agent saying, ‘The glasses had been actually nice within the audition; she ought to put on them within the desk learn.'”
We knew from her Showbiz Cheat Sheet interview that Rauch stored the glasses, however whereas chatting with Radloff, she defined one other emotional cause that she took them house as a memento … and mentioned one thing else she’s saved that issues the collection. “I maintain [the glasses] in a particular drawer for my children to have as a particular memento years from now, identical to how I additionally saved my dad and mom’ voicemail message from the primary time they noticed my identify within the opening credit once I turned a collection common.”
Apparently, Melissa Rauch referred to as her agent at simply the suitable time — and it helped her get the function of Bernadette on The Huge Bang Concept
So, now everyone knows that Melissa Rauch impressed the artistic workforce behind “The Huge Bang Concept” to declare that Bernadette would put on glasses — however she nearly missed out on the possibility totally. As Rauch recalled to Jessica Radloff within the series-spanning ebook, when she auditioned for “The Huge Bang Concept,” she wasn’t going out for a lot of roles … and she or he referred to as her agent at exactly the suitable second.
“I auditioned on September 15, 2009, however previous to that audition, I hadn’t had one in so lengthy that I referred to as my agent and stated, ‘I am sorry, however is there something on the market you suppose I would be proper for?'” Rauch advised Radloff. “I wanted to work and hated having to make that decision, however I simply determined to do it. My agent stated, ‘It’s totally gradual,’ after which two days later I had an audition for ‘Huge Bang.’ Evidently, I used to be thrilled I received the braveness to make that cellphone name.”
Nikki Valko and Ken Miller, who helped forged the present, had been interviewed many instances for Radloff’s ebook — they usually principally stated that as quickly as Rauch auditioned, she was good. “Melissa Rauch equals comedy gold, and we do not say that simply,” Valko gushed. “We see a variety of actors. She walked into that room and it was like, Wow. We had by no means met her earlier than. She knew the place each beat was, each second. It was a flawless audition, and that is the gold. And the function was just for one, possibly two episodes. Definitely it wasn’t what it turned.” Apparently, the fake glasses did not damage both.
“The Huge Bang Concept” is streaming on Max now.