Johnny Galecki Based His Big Bang Theory Character On A Real Person

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Actors all have a process, right? Method performers like Daniel Day-Lewis, Christian Bale, and, uh, Jared Leto go to pretty extreme lengths to find truth and reality in their performances, often living as their characters to really delve into their fictional psyches. (Also, I'm sorry that I mentioned Leto in the same sentence as Day-Lewis and Bale.) As Johnny Galecki, who played Leonard Hofstadter on "The Big Bang Theory" for the show's entire run, told Jessica Radloff in her book "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series," he also took a very thorough approach to creating his character on Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady's hit CBS series. Though Galecki didn't go full Method, he did utilize childhood memories ... and an unexpected animal.

"I grew up with Tommy from the age of seven," Galecki told Radloff of his childhood friend Tommy Loeper, who apparently inspired Leonard. "He had a specific way about him that never left me. I still remember his posture. Leonard was really Tommy Loeper, but I also based the posture and physicality on a meerkat. That's where the clasped hands came from. With almost every character, I try to base them on people I admire. And I often go through animal photos because an animal is never putting on a persona or falseness. You look at a photo of a panther, for example, and the photos are pure, and that's an ingredient I try to choose for each character. So when I saw this photo of three meerkats looking up with their paws clasped, I thought it made sense."

Funnily enough, Galecki also used another famous sitcom character as inspiration ... only for the actor to later appear on "The Big Bang Theory" at his request. "I also based the character on Judd Hirsch's character in 'Taxi,'" Galecki revealed, referencing Hirsch's series lead Alex Reiger — and it's an appropriate comparison, because both Leonard and Alex are the more "level-headed" members of their respective ensembles. "Not in terms of mannerism of performance, but as far as the purpose that the character would serve. And that's why I asked Judd if he'd be willing to play my dad in the season 9 finale."

"I mean, the fact that he looked to a meerkat for some of Leonard's mannerisms with the hands together and the head up, is one of the many reasons why Johnny is awesome," writer and executive producer Steve Molaro also told Radloff. "If you really look, Leonard carries his body differently than Johnny. It was fascinating to watch."

Elsewhere in the book, Johnny Galecki's co-star (and on-screen love interest and real-life girlfriend at one time) Kaley Cuoco revealed that Galecki was also super specific about the way Leonard smelled. "Johnny also had a very specific smell that was just for Leonard," Cuoco recalled. "I don't think he'll ever spray that cologne again, but because I was around him so much, I knew that smell. He was very superstitious about that."

"I read an article in Esquire many, many years ago about how your scent is your essence, and I thought, That's really interesting,'" Galecki said before explaining how this scent also connected back to his childhood friend Tommy Loeper. "So I'd pick a specific scent for each character I'd play. As a kid, when I would walk up to Tommy's apartment in Chicago, there was all this ventilation from the dry cleaning, which had this very clean, fresh smell. So I found this cologne, called Clean, that reminded me of that smell, and reminded me of Tommy. Over the years, I went through like two bottles of it." This all led to a pretty funny on-set "emergency," as Galecki explained:

"One day I forgot to spray it on and didn't realize until I was in the middle of a scene, so I asked our second [assistant director] to grab my cologne from the bathroom. I had to have it. And I know that makes me sound like a crazy person, which is somewhat true, but everyone's process is what it is. And then you become kind of superstitious. Oh, and by the way, I think I gave the last little bit of cologne I had to Chuck Lorre."

The funniest possible outcome came true here, which is that Lorre isn't even sure where the cologne that Galecki held so dearly on the set of "The Big Bang Theory" ended up after all that. "That cologne might be sitting in a medicine cabinet somewhere. I stopped using cologne a long time ago, so it's either in a cardboard box or has found its way into a medicine cabinet."

Even though Galecki brought a few inside influences to his role as Leonard Hofstadter — which is to say, ones that were a bit separate from his own experiences and personality — he did open up about one scene that made him cry on set because it felt so achingly personal. In the season 1 episode "The Middle-Earth Paradigm," which was the show's inaugural Halloween installment, Leonard gets embarrassed when Penny hosts a party ... and her giant ex-boyfriend Kurt (Brian Wade) humiliates Leonard by picking him up. (It doesn't help that Leonard is dressed as a Hobbit from "Lord of the Rings," probably.) As Galecki told Radloff elsewhere in her book, this moment struck a nerve, and not because of Tommy Loeper or a meerkat, but because of his lived experience.

"I very much remember that moment," Galecki recalled. "It was a complex episode for me because I didn't feel a lot of personal connection with Leonard initially. And that episode — although I know it's not our best episode by any means — is where I felt I really met Leonard. He was bullied by Penny's ex-boyfriend, Kurt, and him picking me up as Leonard really affected me to the point where I think I cried after we shot the episode. I shared that with Kaley and Jim [Parsons, who played Leonard's roommate and best friend Sheldon Cooper on the series] at the time because it really dug up some old schoolyard stuff for me. It didn't happen all week during rehearsal; it was only when we shot it that it really hit home — in a good way, though, because I had a way into Leonard and really began to understand him."

This is also, as it happens, the episode where Penny kisses Leonard for the first time ... but only because she's upset and crying about only dating mean dudes instead of a nice guy like Leonard. Leonard, to his credit, doesn't take things further, knowing that Penny isn't in a good place. As Galecki said, he also treasured moments like this ... and hopes Leonard gave something back to him. "I hope I have carried some of Leonard's traits like that with me in real life. When you love a character, there's certain things you want to retain from them on a cellular level. And there are certain things about Leonard that I certainly hope is the case."

You can see Galecki's thoughtful, lived-in performance on "The Big Bang Theory," all of which is streaming on Max now.