Johnny Galecki Accidentally Predicted Some Of Leonard's Plotlines On The Big Bang Theory

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Ever since "The Big Bang Theory" ended in 2019, we've learned some fairly wild things about each cast member's specific acting process. Simon Helberg, who plays Howard Wolowitz on the series, liked to run around screaming before he started filming, and while playing Sheldon Cooper, Jim Parsons wrote some of his particularly dense scientific speeches down onto index cards and stuck them around the set. So what did Johnny Galecki, the man behind Leonard Hofstadter — best friend to Sheldon and eventual husband of Penny (Kaley Cuoco) — do to prepare? He kept a huge binder of notes, and apparently, he figured out some plot points ahead of time. Speaking to Jessica Radloff in her 2022 book "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series," Galecki explained his mysterious binder ... and said Cuoco thought the whole thing was hilarious.

"I still have my first few scripts and all the backstory of notes in a binder that I wrote, which to anyone else would look like hieroglyphics," Galecki told Radloff. "It was a very Leonard-like binder with a Chewbacca sticker on it. I showed it to [writer and executive producer] Steve Molaro, and it was really creepy how accurate things turned out to be." So what did Galecki accidentally predict?

"I wrote about Leonard's relationship with his mother even though she wasn't introduced until season 2," Galecki clarified, referring to the imperious and haughty Dr. Beverly Hofstadter (Christine Baranski), a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who spent Leonard's childhood analyzing her son for her own work. "Some things I got right, and other things were just funny." (Galecki did not clarify further on that.)

Galecki claims that Cuoco was particularly fascinated by his character binder ... but for a specific reason. "Kaley always used to make fun of my binder. Those were my secrets, my private foundation for the character," Galecki explained before saying that a lot of the binder was devoted to Leonard's relationship with Penny. "Half of those backstory notes were love letters to Penny. I think that's what Kaley got a kick out of ... the obsession, the loving obsession that Leonard had."

Elsewhere in Jessica Radloff's book, both Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki discussed the fact that Cuoco, who has an eidetic memory, had no trouble memorizing her lines and often showed up to set without much preparation and blew everybody away. This was probably just a smidge frustrating for Galecki, to be fair, but it's also pretty funny — because this dynamic feels like one that Penny and Leonard would have on the show. (This also makes sense, because the actors were very good friends throughout their time on "The Big Bang Theory" and also dated while they worked on the series together.)

"Oh my gosh, the backstory and the research! He probably made fun of me because I had done zero research to play Penny," Cuoco recalled to Radloff. "I'd give him a hard time and be like, 'Got your binder?! It's season 10, hope you know what your backstory is now!' I gave him so much sh*t. I was like, 'What was Leonard doing before this last scene? Where was Leonard? Tell us!' I was so bad!"

Referencing their relationship, Cuoco said that one day, while observing Galecki at work, she had a realization. "I remember when we were dating and I'd go to his place and see 'Big Bang Theory' scripts lying around, and I'd go through them just to see what he did," she mused. " And they were marked and circled and had notes. That's when I realized, Oh, so you're really working on this."

Unsurprisingly, Cuoco was incredibly supportive towards her friend and co-star. "But even so, I'd tell him, 'Dude, no one else could be Leonard! It's you! Believe in yourself,'" Cuoco said. "'Every word that comes out, every expression, every sweet look on your face ... you are Leonard, you're not going to f**k this up.'"

Johnny Galecki, like Simon Helberg, also had a very specific ritual that he did every night before filming, though it sounds considerably less noisy than what Helberg was out there doing. As he told Radloff:

"There was also a vase in my room I had to touch and say an internal monologue before I went on set. It's a confidence game. And if you don't have that confidence you're not gonna serve the writing or your castmates. Some nights I would really get in my own way with a long speech or something, and Kaley would come over and whisper in my ear, 'You got this.' Next take I'd nail it. You need to have that."

Again, it seems lucky that Galecki worked so closely with Kaley Cuoco, because she was clearly a massive source of support. Cuoco spoke to that herself in Radloff's book. "He would get so in his head about everything, especially if he had a big scene," Cuoco recalled. "I'd say, 'Who cares if you f**k up? I hope you mess it up because it's funny! It's OK! But you got this, you do.' He would get really flustered, but it would be perfect nearly every time."

At the end of the day, Galecki acknowledges that he didn't have the hardest job in the world, but he still approached it with utmost seriousness. "It's not manual labor, so I don't want to paint it that way, but even ten years in, I would wake up at 3 A.M. to work on my script and make notes," he said. "You want to show up for the writers, the cast, the audience, and not let anybody down." It's safe to say that, across twelve years and the same number of seasons, he succeeded in that goal.

"The Big Bang Theory" is streaming on HBO Max now.