How Laurie Metcalf Ended Up Playing Sheldon's Mom On The Big Bang Theory

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In the fourth-ever episode of "The Big Bang Theory," we meet Sheldon Cooper's (Jim Parsons) mother, Mary Cooper, who's played by Laurie Metcalf and provides a very strong contrast to her science-minded son. So, how did Metcalf even get involved with Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady's beloved CBS sitcom? According to Jessica Radloff's 2022 book "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series," it all comes back to "Roseanne."

Both Chuck Lorre and one of his stars, Johnny Galecki — who plays Sheldon's best friend Leonard Hofstadter on "The Big Bang Theory" — worked on "Roseanne" in different capacities; Lorre wrote for the sitcom, while Galecki appeared as David Healy in a recurring role throughout its run. Lorre, as Radloff reveals, asked Galecki to reach out to Metcalf, and the rest, I suppose, is history.

"Johnny asked if I would be interested in coming on," Metcalf recalled, before saying that it all felt familiar to her in the best possible way. "It was like old home week because there were so many people in the cast and crew and writers that knew each other from the 'Roseanne' days. And I just remember being really impressed by everybody's work ethic. Even though it was early on it felt like an ensemble. And I kept coming back because the writing was incredible."

Lorre, for his part, spoke to Mary's character — in that she is a deeply religious woman who doesn't think much of science, whereas science is basically a religion to her son Sheldon. "Laurie was just magical and hilarious as this deeply religious woman from Texas," Lorre said fondly. "She never parodied the character. She played the character with a great deal of affection. Those were some of my favorite episodes."

"I give full credit to the writers for coming up with that brilliant combination of religion and science in the mom and the son," Metcalf agreed. "There were tenfold reasons for these two to butt heads during the course of the show."

Jim Parsons told Radloff in the book that, after he learned that sitcom legend Laurie Metcalf would play Sheldon's mom on "The Big Bang Theory," he was immediately a bit cowed. "It was — in the best way — really heavy having her on the show," he admitted. Parsons elaborated:

"It added even more weight if an actor like Laurie Metcalf was joining us. When I learned she was going to play my mother, it felt like an answered prayer that I hadn't even specifically prayed for. I was like, This experience is going perhaps even better than I knew! She may have been like, 'You know what, I'd like to go on a trip to Greece, I'm going to go on this show to get this paycheck!' But I don't think that's what she was doing, though."

Still, apparently he and Metcalf bonded very quickly, thanks in large part to the fact that Mary dotes on Sheldon (she even tucks him into bed as an adult on "The Big Bang Theory" and sings a silly little song called "Soft Kitty"). "One of my favorite moments with Laurie was when we were doing a scene when she's tucking Sheldon into bed, and in between takes, she whispered into my ear a very intimate secret, almost a kind of gossipy story, until they'd say, 'And action!' and she'd shut up and do her part," Parsons recalled. "Then we'd cut, and in that real dim light of the bedroom, she'd whisper the rest to me."

"Jim and I hit it off and bonded so quickly that he and I are still looking for something to do together, perhaps onstage," Metcalf said at the time (again, this was in 2022; the two haven't reunited as of this writing). "Jim takes the job seriously, while still being able to have fun. And I did not go on the show just for a paycheck! Sometimes it's just about who you want to work with. I'm always surprised fans know all my episodes because I was in so few of them in the big picture. I think they remember me being around more than I actually was." 

Both Metcalf and Mary did become an indispensable part of the show and, apparently, Parsons' life — Metcalf and her daughter Zoe Perry, whose father is "Scandal" and "Grey's Anatomy" actor Jeff Perry, attended Parsons' 2017 wedding to Todd Spiewak (which Parsons also recounts in Radloff's book). This all comes full circle, actually ... because as "The Big Bang Theory" prepared to end its run after 12 seasons, the younger Perry ended up taking a major role in its prequel.

Fans of the "Big Bang Theory" Cinematic Universe know perfectly well that Zoe Perry plays a younger Mary Cooper on "Young Sheldon," the first official spin-off and prequel, which started airing in 2017 (two years before "The Big Bang Theory" came to an end). So, how did this come to pass? As Jim Parsons revealed, his husband, Todd Spiewak, helped conceive this inspired bit of casting.

"When they were casting Mary in 'Young Sheldon,' it was really Todd who said, 'They should look at Zoe,'" Parsons recalled. "We had seen her onstage and knew she was a very good actor, not to mention she has a lot of similarities to Laurie that could work in the role. But when we suggested it to Chuck, his original reaction was like, That's outlandish! She's a child." The reason is that Lorre only remembered Zoe from when she would be brought to see her mother on the set of "Roseanne" when she was a baby. "But that was thirty years ago!" he exclaimed.

Obviously, Perry was exactly the right age to join "Young Sheldon" as Mary Cooper, and after she and Laurie Metcalf decided that Metcalf shouldn't help Perry prep for her audition — so she'd have zero hand in it whatsoever — Perry got the role. While some might assume that Perry only booked the role because of her mother, that's definitely not the case, and Metcalf said that sometimes, people don't even realize that the two are mother and daughter.

"It's still funny to me that I'll see somebody write about how they think that the mom on 'Young Sheldon' is so well cast because she can do a good impression of me," Metcalf laughed to Jessica Radloff. They don't assume that we're related, but a lot of people tell me that we really do sound alike." The proud mother continued:

"I'm happy that she got the part, but also in that it makes it just a little tiny layer deeper for the show. It looks like it really could be the same woman, 30 years earlier. And I don't think it's happened that there are relatives that have played the same character decades apart on currently running shows, before 'Big Bang' went off the air."

Metcalf may well be right about that, but the fact of the matter is that this multi-generational role of Mary Cooper was made possible when she agreed to join "The Big Bang Theory" in the first place. You can stream "The Big Bang Theory" on HBO Max, and "Young Sheldon" on both Netflix and HBO Max.