_Young Sheldon_’s Zoe Perry Agrees It’s Wild That She’s Sort of Playing Her Own Mother
On The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon’s (Jim Parsons) mother Mary is played by Laurie Metcalf. On Young Sheldon— a prequel to Big Bang that follows Sheldon as a youngster — Mary is played by Zoe Perry, Metcalf’s real-life daughter.
That would seem to present some interesting acting challenges for Perry. Since the character already exists elsewhere, isn’t she kind of playing her own mother playing a character? That’s kind of a head trip if you think about it, isn’t it?
Perry says that it’s “wild” to be playing the part, but in a fun way. While it’s helpful to have somebody to “bend the ear of” if she has questions about the character, she doesn’t worry about stepping into her mother’s sensible shoes too much.
“I guess I’m lucky in the way that genetics will do a fair amount for me, so I don’t have to think about acting like her,” Perry told TV Guide at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. “Because I’m playing this character at a different stage of life I can just kind of play any given scene and just allow that reality to be my own, so that’s been nice.”
Opposed to being stern and uncompromising like in The Big Bang Theory, Zoe Perry’s Mary Cooper is much more patient and forgiving of Sheldon’s antics in Young Sheldon. This characteristic is one of the prime factors that contributed to Sheldon’s behavior in the original show, which is reasonable to see why fans aren’t too fond of Perry’s Mary, who often enables Sheldon.
But despite fans’ complaints against her character, The Family star absolutely adores her job of playing mom, as the producers helped the Coopers feel like a real family on set.
One Inclusion on Set Helped Zoe Perry Feel like a Real Mother to Her Onscreen Kids
Speaking of her experience on Young Sheldon, Zoe Perry recalled feeling like a real mom to Montana Jordan, Iain Armitage, and Raegan Revord on set, thanks to the producers. When the filming for the prequel began, Perry revealed that the producers started a tradition of tracking the kids’ height on set as the sitcom progressed, which lasted throughout the show’s run.
It’s such a lovely little inclusion one of our producers created. We have a growth chart and it starts from [the kids’] heights at the pilot and goes all the way until today. By the end of the season they’ll get another mark and it’s nuts to see how much they’ve grown
Reflecting back on Georgie actor Montana Jordan, who was like a “cute baby” in the pilot, Perry said, “I don’t want to embarrass him … he was so sweet and little and now he’s a teenager”. This simple addition to the show contributed to the family dynamic on the set.
