When it comes to “The Big Bang Theory,” there are a whole bunch of stories about the wild casting process. Even though Simon Helberg ultimately earned the main role of Howard Wolowitz, Kevin Sussman very nearly booked it … and wound up playing comic book owner Stuart Bloom on the show anyway. Kunal Nayyar, who plays Raj Koothrappali for the entire series, was nearly fired before filming even began, and Kaley Cuoco replaced the show’s original female lead with her character, Penny. Johnny Galecki ended up playing Leonard Hofstadter for the show’s entire 12 season (and 12-year) run, but before he came on board, John Ross Bowie auditioned for the part. Like Sussman, he ended up scoring a recurring role … with a twist.
In a 2017 interview with The Spectrum, Bowie told the outlet that he did audition for Leonard but understood why Galecki got it. “They were seeing pretty much every nerd in [Los Angeles] for the two main roles and I actually read for the part of Leonard,” Bowie recalled. “When I found out (Johnny) Galecki got it, I was uncharacteristically not resentful! I didn’t know him, but was familiar with his work and felt he was a good match for the role.”
Here’s the twist: creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady were looking for a very specific type of actor. “They were looking for a [recurring] ‘villain’ and Chuck remembered me,” Bowie said. “Initially, I played the character as an alpha nerd bully, but Chuck and Bill thought he should have some vulnerability so Chuck suggested a speech impediment. I tried something subtle, but what came out was this Elmer Fudd voice.”
John Ross Bowie thinks that Barry Kripke’s manner of speaking is actually pretty cool
The voice for the character that ultimately became Barry Kripke — a plasma physicist and string theorist who works at the California Institute of Technology with Leonard, Howard, Raj, and Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) came out of a simple suggestion and apparently, even though Bowie told The Spectrum that he thought it was a bit much, Chuck Lorre really loved it. “Chuck has this very specific laugh and began giggling,” Bowie remembers about his audition. “I started work the next day.”
Technically, Barry Kripke suffers from a speech impediment known as “rhotacism,” which is characterized by a person having trouble with the “R” sound (hence why Elmer Fudd from “Looney Tunes” was brought into the conversation, as he has the same issue). Bowie told The Spectrum, though, that he thinks Barry’s speech impediment is perhaps the least interesting thing about the character, in that it doesn’t define him at all. “For all his flaws, Kripke is not a loser and is incredibly smart, so I think there’s something fundamentally empowering about the character,” Bowie said, even saying that Barry “wins more than he loses” where his rivalry with Sheldon is concerned.
There’s one other great story from John Ross Bowie’s Big Bang Theory audition — and it involves Leonard Nimoy
Not only did John Ross Bowie help come up with the voice for Barry Kripke during his audition, but the entire character shifted a bit when Bowie came on board. In Jessica Radloff’s 2022 book “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series,” Bowie told Radloff the same story he told The Spectrum — namely, that he auditioned to play Leonard, lost the role to Johnny Galecki but understood, and then improvised a voice during his audition that sealed his fate (in a good way), but added some details … including the fact that a famous “Star Trek” actor interrupted that audition.
After making Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady laugh with his “Elmer Fudd” voice, Bowie recalls, “Then there was a knock on the door and someone sticks their head in and goes, ‘Chuck, there’s a phone call from Leonard Nimoy.’ Normally if I get my f**king audition interrupted I’m livid. This time I was like, “Listen, we just met but you should probably go take that.” Luckily, it didn’t affect Bowie’s audition at all — and the character actually changed a bit to accommodate his cold read. “And then like half an hour later I’m driving home and I get the call that I’m supposed to show up at Warner Bros. the next day and they want to keep the speech impediment,” Bowie recalled. “They’ve also changed the character’s name to Barry because it sounds funnier with the speech impediment.” Bowie went to work right away, and the rest is history.
“The Big Bang Theory,” including all of Bowie’s best moments as Barry Kripke, is streaming on Max now.
