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The Big Bang Theory: one of the actors almost didn’t play in the series

We can’t deny it – it’s impossible to imagine The Big Bang Theory without Howard, played by the amazing Simon Helberg. But, as he told comedian Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show”, we were this close to having the show without him. The reason? He has an instinct that worried him. When asked about it, in fact, he confided: "I have a very good instinct, the same as squirrels. You know, when you’re driving down the road, and there’s a squirrel there and it stops right in the middle... That's me. I almost got hit."

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The show without Simon Helberg?

Nearly a refusal

However, although his instinct is not the best, the explanation behind this near refusal is actually quite logical. As Simon Helberg then admitted, he was still bothered by the failure of his previous series, when he was offered the role to play in “The Big Bang Theory”: "I was in a show called “Studio 60”. It was really good (...) but people weren’t watching the show. (Ed. Note: It was canceled after one season.) I was like, “I don’t want to play nerds anymore, so I’ll pass on the nerd show. And I just got convinced to go in and... I think I made a good choice."

It was actually an excellent choice, since “The Big Bang Theory” will celebrate its 10th anniversary this fall, while the actor now has one of the highest salaries on TV for his role.