In Their Own Words: The 'Big Bang Theory' Cast on the Emotional Ending
Jim Parsons revealed they filmed a couple versions of each scene so they didn’t “leave anything to chance.” As a result, everyone “felt a little less pressure and therefore a little less apt to fall apart.”
That didn’t mean they weren’t affected by filming the episode, and he specifically pointed to the very beginning as being hard because “we knew it was going to be the last one and the very end.”
Parsons also singled out the final bow and everyone’s farewells, specifically when he reached the director, Mark Cendrowski. Because he’s “directed so many of our episodes,” the actor explained, “in some ways, [he] has been my most consistent working partner for 12 years.”
“There’s a communication and a consistency there that I don’t have with a single other human on this show. And he’s such a good man,” he added. “He’s such a calming force, which is one of the reasons he’s been such a brilliant choice for this role here. And that really touched me, and those were the first real tears I shed of the evening.”
Johnny Galecki went into the finale knowing he’d get emotional. “I knew it was going to be moving. And I’m quick to cry to be honest with you,” he said. “I’m very sentimental. So, nights like last night really got the water-works going, but I’m also a professional and so I had to do my damn job and wipe the tears away, for a couple hours at least.”
Galecki also revealed he was more worried about Kaley Cuoco’s reaction. “And then I think everyone, including myself, was more worried about me,” he added.
Kaley Cuoco didn’t have any tears left by the time of the interview, and she was satisfied with the way the series ended. “These last few days have been very cathartic, that we’ve tied a bow on so many different moments and I feel like we’ve left no stone unturned,” she said. “I can walk away from this going, we did it all. … It was a spectacular night. Every moment of it.”
Because of that, she’s leaving feeling “so settled.” “I have to say this finale is one of the most beautiful finales, as you know, I’ve ever seen,” she said.
During the cover shoot for TV Guide Magazine, Cuoco hadn’t been sure she’d be able to get through the finale. “At that time, I didn’t know what the finale was,” she said. “I had a lot of anxieties about how the show would end as obviously the writers had a lot anxieties. It was our legacy. Finales can make or break you. You’re only as good as the last episode.”
Simon Helberg addressed the “complicated array of feelings” in filming the finale. “We’re just still working,” he said. “To be sobbing through every scene, if that’s where you’re at, may not be the best way to tell that story. … I wouldn’t [say] sadness is exactly what I felt. I felt proud of what we’ve done and celebratory, but of course, moved, too.”
Kunal Nayyar revealed he “was just trying to be in the present moment” and “felt suddenly out of body and slightly detached” during the taping.
It was after it was over when he was on his way to his dressing room that he “really began to feel the weight of saying goodbye.”
Nayyar called it “cathartic” to cry during the final bows and goodbyes. “Because we were together, we were all together saying goodbye,” he said. “It’s good to feel, it’s good to cry. … I grew up in India, we wear our emotions on our sleeves.”
“I’m more of an emotional processor before I fully feel,” Mayim Bialik said. “People have these expectations of what it’s going to look like, but until you’re in it, you don’t really know. And I think a lot of it is, not to get too psychological, a lot of it is emotional defenses.”
“I was coasting through on hope for the last taping,” she continued, adding that the cast is “a family of people who have completely different ways to process emotions.”
Bialik started crying during the final scene. “It’s really, really beautiful. And it’s a beautiful way to end the show,” she said.
“I may be dehydrated from all the tears that I’ve shed,” Melissa Rauch said. “It felt very out-of-body. I knew I was going to be emotional, but it was this mix of being so, so grateful and happy tears of the experience and all the wonderful people that will forever be in my heart, and then just being so overwhelmed with the beauty of what these writers created.”
“I just wanted everything to just slow down so I could savor every second,” she added.
The Big Bang Theory is ending after 12 seasons of laughter, and it's likely fans will be just as emotional watching the series finale as the cast was filming it.
TV Insider spoke with Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Melissa Rauch, and Mayim Bialik at the series finale red carpet. The actors shared their thoughts on the series ending and which moments were the most emotional.
See AlsoTV Insider Podcast: A Farewell 'Big Bang Theory' Roundtable — Plus, Matt Roush's Tribute
The series ends Thursday with a one-hour series finale, followed by a retrospective taking a behind-the-scenes look at the series at 9:30/8:30c after the Young Sheldon season finale.
Click through the gallery above to see what the series stars had to say.
The Big Bang Theory, Series Finale, Thursday, May 16, 8/7c, CBS
— Reporting by Jim Halterman
