Behind the scenes, the cast of The Big Bang Theory had to follow certain rules. Among them, was not growing a beard, Chuck Lorre wanted his main stairs clean shaved. Kaley Cuoco happened to break a certain rule, cutting her hair without giving anyone a heads-up. Chuck Lorre feared Cuoco's haircut might result in decreased ratings.
In the following, we're going to take a closer look at why the cast were given the green light to grow beards for a particular scene. However, the outcome was a complete disaster. One cast member declined the request, while the others were forced to shave their beards when it was time to finally shoot.
Given that the series aired 279 episodes, it only makes sense that the main cast took exception to certain storylines. Some had trouble with their look or image on a particular episode. As for Jim Parsons, he instead disagreed with a certain storyline. The context during the episode sees Sheldon move out his apartment. Given how the character is a 'creature of habit', Parsons could not fathom how easily the process takes place on the show.
Looking back, the actor wanted to see more pushback from Sheldon, and longer time spent on the dilemma. "They made it work… but I mostly had to ignore my own feelings, which was, 'This is out of whack! At the very least, I couldn't believe it wasn't a two-part very special episode where [Sheldon] ties himself to the kitchen island and won't leave! But that wasn't what they wanted to do."
"Looking back, I'm still not at peace with it, but when we did it, I basically just chose not to think about it," Parsons continues. "This is about making bold, creative choices that some people are going to be unhappy with.
Co-star Mayim Bialik also had her own moment of regret, not completely into her new wardrobe for a certain episode that saw her polished and looking fancy. Bialik felt as though it was a betrayal towards Amy.
It was a straightforward gameplan but one that turned into a nightmare behind the scenes. The expectation was for the main cast to grow real beards so that when the show would restart their shoot, it would seem as though lots of time passed since the group left for their Arctic expedition.
The process wasn't as easy as expected and in fact, one of the cast members ended up turning down the request. Jim Parsons did not want to grow out a beard, while the others in the cast teased that the reason was due to the fact that he wasn't able to grow one.
The moment and discussion can be seen below thanks to Celeburbia on YouTube at the 1:55 mark.
Kunal Nayyar, Simon Helberg and Johnny Galecki did in fact grow real beards, and returned to the set with their new facial hair. However, it was all done for nothing once they returned to the set... It seems like Jim Parsons had the last laugh.
Returning to the set, Kunal Nayyar, Simon Helberg and Johnny Galecki's beards were deemed not good enough by the show. Not only that, but they were forced to shave on the spot... It was a frustrating realization that they had grown beards for months for no reason whatsoever. All four of the cast members were given fake beards that were stuck onto their faces.
It was a frustrating reality and in truth, Kaley Cuoco also despised the process of using facial hair as a prop as well.
Kaley called her worst experience on the show.
"The worst experience was filming Serial Apeist and getting covered in hair from head to toe," she says. "I was like, 'Really, you guys? This is what's happening?' And Chuck just thought it was so funny. He loved it. I never understood why."
Although Lorre found it funny, he regretted the moment later on. "We wanted Penny to have some small success in her from of being a successful actor, but it's not my favorite episode. Doing a show within a show — writing the 'bad' scenes that she's in in an otherwise good show — was not our finest moment. The goal was legitimate, which was to put her in a bad move and see her struggling to make something work."
Clearly, the cast had their ups and downs while filming the show behind the scenes.
