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Christine Baranski is absolutely stunning, and that’s a fact . Since the 1980s, Baranski has been a staple of screen and stage, winning her first Emmy for playing the hard-drinking sidekick Maryann Thorpe in “Cybill” and two Tony Awards as of this writing (for Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing” in 1984 and Neil Simon’s “Rumors” in 1989). You may know her from the “Mamma Mia!” films, as Diane Lockhart in “The Good Wife” or “The Good Fight,” or from HBO’s lavish drama “The Gilded Age,” but fans of “The Big Bang Theory” know she played Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who is Johnny Galecki’s mother, Leonard Hofstadter. Baranski ultimately earned four Emmy nominations for guest roles, but how did she get involved in the first place?
In Jessica Radloff’s 2022 book “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series,” executive producer Lee Aronsohn opened up about introducing Beverly in the series’ second season… and why Baranski joined the show. “Chuck [Lorre] and I had worked with Christine on ‘Cybill’ and loved her,” Aronsohn explained, and yes, Lorre also created “Cybill” back in the day. “We knew the woman’s rhythms. We knew what she could knock out of the park. So we gave her some juicy slow balls over the plate, and she hit them.”
“My association with Chuck Lorre changed my career,” Baranski said, speaking to Radloff for the book. “I owe him a lot, so when he came knocking on my door for ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and I read the [script for Beverly], I thought, Oh, okay, I know how to do this. Just like Maryann in ‘Cybill,’ she was another really fantastic lady with these sparse one-liners. And a very different character, which was great.”
Baranski went on to say that ultimately, working with such new actors was also a huge draw. “But what intrigued me about [the show], and still one of the reasons I’m glad I did it, were those young actors,” she mused. “They’re super famous now, but they weren’t famous back then. Nobody knew those names. They were all young, and the show was so original.”
“And when I first came on the show, ‘Big Bang’ was hot,” Baranski continued, speaking to the series’ enduring legacy. “But then, as it continued over the years, it just became a mega-hit, a cult hit. And for me, nothing but joy. Even now, when I’m on vacation in Florence or Dublin, people come up to me and say, ‘Are you Leonard’s mom?'”
