Barber plays George, Sheldon Cooper’s father. Like his mom (played by Zoe Perry) and the rest of his family, he has a thick, Texan drawl (unlike Sheldon himself, most of the time).
Perry’s voice for Mary isn’t far apart from her own, but Barber sounds incredibly different in real life. Fans on the Young Sheldon subreddit have only just discovered this after watching the star’s appearance in a Key and Peele skit and other interviews.
“The way he was talking in the skit was such a change from his accent on YS. So I dove on the internet and listened to an interview with him and Zoe Perry, and oh boy he sounds so different! The way my jaw dropped lol,” the user wrote.
Barber was born and raised in Michigan, before moving to Chicago and relocating to Los Angeles for his first major TV role in 2003’s The WB. Even when he appeared on The Big Bang Theory as Jimmy Speckerman, one of Leonard’s high school bullies, his accent wasn’t quite as distinctive.
“He was also in How I Met Your Mother! I had to rewatch the scene a few times because I couldn’t get over how different he sounds and thought it was someone else. I thought the accent in Young Sheldon was real,” another user commented. “It’s funny watching vids talking with the real life actors, then you get to Georgie and find out his actor is the only one who actually has a real Texan accent,” a third wrote.
If you really want to change your perspective on Barber, you should check out his performance as Bill Ponderosa in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. “I never realized that, holy sh*t! His voice and mannerisms are so different I never even put two and two together,” one wrote.
The Young Sheldon Season 7 finale is fast approaching, and while Jim Parsons will reprise his iconic role, it’ll likely be a sad affair for Barber’s George.
