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Iain Armitage finishes a photo shoot with a mix of smiles, stares and know-it-all expressions, displaying the professionalism of someone who’s been acting twice as long as the 9-year-old's been alive.
The photographer, pleased with the range of moods offered by the boy, offers a high-five and gets another look: stone face.
“You have a lot of germs on your hand,” Armitage says, momentarily stunning
the photographer before letting him in on the joke. “I was just being Sheldon!”
Translation: Bazinga! Say hello to Sheldon Cooper 9.0 of CBS spinoff Young Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory origin story that tracks genius Sheldon as a young germophobe, also 9, who's entering high school in east Texas in 1989. The new series has a special preview Sept. 25 (8:30 ET/PT) following Big Bang's 11th season premiere, then returns Nov. 2 (Thursdays at 8:30).
The idea that became Young Sheldon started with adult Sheldon, four-time Emmy winner Jim Parsons.
“We spent 10 years discussing Sheldon’s childhood on The Big Bang Theory, so a lot of the heavy lifting was done,” says executive producer Chuck Lorre. “We knew who his family was. We knew a good deal about his educational history.”
Iain Armitage plays the title character in 'Young Sheldon,' a younger version of Jim Parsons' Sheldon Cooper from 'The Big Bang Theory.'. (Photo: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY)
It can be a two-way street. Parsons says he's already seen a Young Sheldon story about the boy's model rocket evolve into a Big Bang reference to Sheldon accidentally burning down a garage in his youth.
Many details will be familiar to Big Bang fans. Sheldon lives with his protective, church-going mother, Mary (Zoe Perry, Scandal); good ol' boy, football-coach father, George Sr. (Lance Barber); older brother and new classmate Georgie (Montana Jordan); and twin sister Missy (Raegan Revord). Beloved grandmother, or "Meemaw" (Annie Potts), resides nearby.
However, young Sheldon can't succeed as a direct translation of the intellectually domineering, socially obtuse Big Bang character, says executive producer Steve Molaro.
"We're not just writing adult Sheldon's words and putting them in Iain's mouth," he says. "There are things Jim Parsons can get away with that when you have a little kid say it, he just comes off as bratty. And 9-year-old Sheldon has an endearing optimism and innocence ..."
"... which obviously gets smashed somewhere along the way," Lorre interjects. "But we're not there yet."
The Cooper family sits down for dinner on the new CBS comedy, 'Young Sheldon.' (Photo: Robert Voets, CBS)
Even with that adjustment, producers needed a young actor who could channel Parsons’ ability to annoy while remaining lovable and also anchor the high-profile new series, which gets sarcastic seasoning via Wonder Years-style narration from Parsons.
"You tie in that link for people who are big fans of Big Bang and make that bridge all the stronger for them," he says.
Armitage stood out during casting.
"He tends to think from a place of character motivation and what does something mean," Parsons says. "There were a couple of different scenes I would read out loud in front of him and he would figure out why it needed to go that way, like, ‘What is Sheldon thinking?’ and he would fly with it."
During an interview in Young Sheldon’s classroom, outfitted with Lone Star flags, theater-club flyers and No. 2 pencils, Armitage (Big Little Lies) is preternaturally poised, explaining differences between the Sheldons (innocent vs. sassy) and alluding to child-actor horror stories, which he's not yet experienced.
“It’s been perfect. … For my mom, me, my family,” he says. “I’m having so much fun.”
That’s apparent a few minutes later, as Armitage acts his age between takes, swinging a briefcase that’s almost as big as he is while sing-songing a series of nonsense phrases – “five corpulent porpoises!” – designed to improve memory.
The comedy examines how finicky, brutally honest Sheldon influences an otherwise typical suburban family. Despite his brilliance, they're not defenseless.
"The whole family might have an advantage in terms of reading cues in a social setting over Sheldon," says Perry, the real-life daughter of Laurie Metcalf, who plays an older version of Mary on Big Bang. "Everyone has to either accommodate how he would like things to run or not. So, it's a negotiation."
Mary (Zoe Perry) and George Sr. (Lance Barber) are the parents of a 9-year-old genius in the CBS comedy, 'Young Sheldon,' which is set in the 1980s. (Photo: Robert Hanashiro, USAT)
The single-camera comedy's lack of a studio audience
that's Lorre's wheelhouse sets the spinoff apart, as do character shadings that may surprise viewers familiar with adult Sheldon's recollections.
In the pilot, George Sr., who is not remembered fondly on Big Bang, gets fleshed out, as father and son share a surprisingly intimate conversation and gesture.
"On The Big Bang Theory, he is a punchline," Barber says. "I'm not saying that he's a good father by any means, but that Sheldon's memory of him is tainted by chips on the shoulder. ... Perhaps we'll get to see a more human person."
Many things, however, will remain as Sheldon remembers them.
"There's a lot of similarities," Armitage says, citing a hobby shared by Sheldons. "For example: Trains!"
(USATODAY)
