Authentic Penny Actor Shares How She Was Heartbreakingly Fired From The Huge Bang Concept

Virtually twenty years since she was solid as the unique feminine lead in The Huge Bang Concept, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe recollects the heartbreaking means that she was fired from the present. A lot has already been mentioned concerning the unaired The Huge Bang Concept pilot that CBS requested Chuck Lorre and Invoice Prady to redo. In that model of the sitcom opener, Amanda Walsh performed Katie — an authentic model of Penny, which Kaley Cuoco ultimately performed for 12 seasons within the sequence.

The unaired pilot had a considerably totally different solid of characters apart from Leonard and Sheldon. Penny, Raj, and Howard had been lacking, and of their place are two different feminine characters. Gilda, performed by Iris Bahr, is harking back to Sara Gilbert’s Leslie Winkle, and Katie. Elements of the opener can be found to look at on-line. Nonetheless, a much-lesser identified reality about The Huge Bang Concept was that it initially solid O’Keefe for the function of Katie earlier than Walsh.

Within the new episode of The Official The Huge Bang Concept Podcast, O’Keefe sat down with host Jessica Radloff to speak about her historical past with the nerd-centric sitcom. The actor identified for her roles in Jail Break, The Vampire Diaries, and She’s All That, amongst others, shared how she discovered that she was solid within the comedy and the way she was ultimately let go from it. Learn her full quote beneath:

Comedy and sitcom, for me, is like grabbing the brass ring. Essentially the most enjoyable, the schedule’s wonderful. the fun of doing it in entrance of an viewers, the comedic timing, the entire issues. I am principally inside an enormous dopey face, so if I can fall on my face and make somebody snigger, I am right here for it. I had labored with Chuck [Lorre] so many occasions earlier than, Dharma & Greg, Two and Half Males. You realize issues like that. I used to be so excited by this specific function and so past, over-the-moon, truly booked it, as a result of it is one to be excited for a task, it is one other factor to really hear the phrases, ‘it is you.’ After which, every week into rehearsals, we had been on our final day, and my supervisor known as me and he mentioned ‘hey child, what occurred?’ And I mentioned, ‘what occurred? did somebody die?’ And he mentioned, ‘no child, it is not figuring out.’ I mentioned ‘what’s not?’ So I had no concept. Apparently, it was not meant to be, and that was the top of that story.

O’Keefe was let go from The Huge Bang Concept not as a result of she was dangerous within the function. As she mentioned, the half was already awarded to her they usually had been in the course of rehearsals to movie the pilot. Each Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki had each come out to sing her praises. The issue was that the character of Katie was unsuitable for what they had been aiming for in The Huge Bang Concept. Even when it was recast with Walsh, it nonetheless did not work.

Lorre and Prady needed to in the end scrap the character and substitute her with Penny. With Cuoco hooked up to the function, that was the one time that The Huge Bang Concept began to work. Katie was harsh and judgmental, however Penny, regardless of her variations with the boys, handled them with kindness and even understanding. She functioned because the viewers’ perspective and Cuoco successfully performed that function.

It has been established repeatedly that Lorre is loyal to his co-workers. So a lot of his former aspect actors discovered their means again into his orbit, touchdown larger roles in new exhibits, equivalent to Lance Barber and even Kevin Sussman. O’Keefe is aware of this, since she returned in The Huge Bang Concept season 2 to play a visitor half. Nonetheless, maybe she will get a extra distinguished gig from the producer, particularly as he expands the franchise with Stuart’s spinoff.