The Big Bang Theory Audition Brie Larson Wants to Forget (But We Won't Let Her)
The actress almost forgot she tried for a role in the cult sitcom.
TV shows aren't always successful off the bat, and such was the case with CBS' The Big Bang Theory, whose first season is still ranked lowest by critics and fans. Remarkably, the sitcom's pilot episode that aired in 2007 wasn't the original version produced by the TBBT team. The original pilot featured a different cast, and the story itself was also significantly altered in the final version.
As it turns out, Brie Larson was apparently one of the first actors to apply for a role in the project, but for better or worse, the actress flopped the audition.
While being busy in Hollywood — Larson plays Captain Marvel in the eponymous franchise — the star still finds time to run a YouTube channel where she posts all kinds of videos from Q&A to cooking. In one of them, Larson revealed that she once auditioned for The Big Bang Theory, and it looks like she'd rather forget the experience.
'I tested for The Big Bang Theory. I remembered that this morning,' the actress said. '[The producers] were really sweet. They just said that I was too young, which was true.'
Although she didn't reveal which role she tested for, we can assume it was one of the leads, that is, the only main female role that was originally on the show: the character that came to be known as Penny. At the beginning, however, Penny was conceived as a completely different personage, a manipulative and mean young woman named Katie.
As Larson was too young to portray the character, Kaley Cuoco, four years her senior, was accepted to play the part — and she proved to be the perfect fit for Penny we know and love today.
Cuoco's Penny was a lovable addition to the series, and besides, she is responsible for much character development on The Big Bang Theory. She was an unexpected, but still entirely convincing, match for Leonard, and if it wasn't for Penny, fan-favorite Sheldon might not have grown into the relatively mature man that he was by the end of the show.
Given her importance, we doubt that Penny could've been portrayed equally successfully by anyone other than Kaley Cuoco — even by the Captain Marvel actress who, in fact, seems totally okay about missing out on the role.
Source: YouTube.