Can you imagine Sheldon without Amy? Actor Jim Parsons didn't want to, and he's explained why he was willing to fight for her character.
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00:00Can you imagine Sheldon without Amy? Actor Jim Parsons didn't want to,
00:05and he's explained why he was willing to fight for her character.
00:09Among the many standout characters on The Big Bang Theory is Amy, played by Mayim Bialik,
00:14who was introduced in the Season 3 finale as a viable love interest for Sheldon Cooper.
00:19Now before this goes any further, you should know that all forms of physical contact,
00:22up to and including coitus, are off the table.
00:25Robotic and blunt, Amy turns out to not just be one of the only characters who
00:29can match Sheldon's freak, but she also proves vital to softening Sheldon up and
00:34turning him into a slightly kinder, slightly healthier person.
00:38Amy, I'd like to apologize. Your accomplishment was impressive, and I'm proud of you.
00:44Although Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco, is probably the biggest catalyst for Sheldon's
00:48growth over the series, the importance of Amy for Sheldon's character arc can't be overstated.
00:54Still, her role on the series was very nearly cut short. Bialik said in a 2022 interview,
01:00After my episode in the Season 3 finale, I literally thought my character might never
01:04come back. There was some negative attention when I joined the cast, because some people
01:08held Sheldon very near and dear to them and didn't want him to change or become a cheesy boyfriend.
01:13Additionally, I'm being blackmailed with a hidden dirty sock.
01:18If that was slang, I'm unfamiliar with it.
01:20Writer-showrunner Stephen Malauro elaborated on this in the same interview, saying,
01:25We in the writers' room were into it, but we didn't know where it was going to go.
01:29But we went into it like we do with all additions to the show and all the characters — we're
01:33hopeful and trying to do our best to make it grow into something better and interesting.
01:37That was one of those that obviously did. But it took a little while to shake off the
01:42female Sheldon description and let her become her own person.
01:45Oh, it's a tiara! A tiara! I have a tiara! Put it on me! Put it on me! Put it on me! Put it on me!
01:54Amy very much did become her own person throughout the series, evolving to become
01:58a more beloved and interesting character. A lot of this wouldn't have happened without
02:02the help of Jim Parsons, who played Sheldon. Parsons explained,
02:05At some point in Season 4, I don't know if something caused it or not,
02:09I remember saying I will not let this character go without a fight. That was notable for me,
02:13only in that I almost never disagreed with the writers. But at some point I felt a certain way
02:18about working with Mayim that I was like, if for whatever reason we seemed to be weaning
02:22her off of this show as a character, I would go and talk to them.
02:26When Amy was upgraded to a series regular in Season 4, the decision took Bialik by surprise.
02:31She said,
02:32The week that I was offered a regular contract, I had told my manager,
02:35I think this is my last episode, I think they're done with me and have done all they want to do
02:39with my character. Instead, it turned out they were just getting started.
02:43Parsons explained,
02:44I know at the audition they said they needed a female version of Sheldon,
02:48basically, but that's untenable long-term. There was no choice but to evolve the character.
02:52Dear Amy, self-respect and a hymen are better than friends and fun. Love, Mom.
02:56Sure enough, Amy's initial female Sheldon persona turned out to be a misdirect. Yes,
03:01she really was that nerdy and awkward at first, but unlike Sheldon, she had a strong,
03:06genuine desire to connect with other people. Once she got herself an actual friend group,
03:10especially with Penny and Bernadette, she proved herself to be a bit of a social butterfly,
03:15at least by Sheldon's standards. Sure, she sometimes uses Penny as an unwitting test
03:19subject in her experiments, but she's still more emotionally intelligent than Sheldon.
03:24So I high-tailed it over here to pick up the pieces of your broken heart.
03:27For Parsons, a big key to Amy's success was not just the writers' willingness to evolve her into
03:32someone more interesting, but in the way they didn't wait until the last minute to introduce
03:36her. He said in the interview,
03:38"[The writers did not let the well run dry before they were like,
03:41Oh God, should we adopt a kid? Should we bring in a monkey? You know what I mean?
03:45They plugged these people in to see what was going to work and how it would work,
03:49and I thought it was genius."
03:50In most other shows, the seemingly asexual Sheldon getting a girlfriend is something
03:55the writers would wait until much later to throw in. If they had, the storyline would
03:59have felt like a desperate attempt to keep the show fresh. Instead, The Big Bang Theory
04:04threw Amy into the show right in the middle of the series' strongest years, projecting confidence
04:09and earning some much-needed goodwill from those viewers who were skeptical about a Sheldon romance
04:14storyline. By the time Big Bang Theory ended in Season 12, it was hard to believe there was ever
04:19a time where Amy wasn't around.
04:21I can't imagine loving you more than I do right now.