The Big Bang Theory: This iconic star turned down a role, then changed her mind to shoot with Kaley Cuoco!

The day Kaley Cuoco made all the difference! If Jim Parsons (Sheldon), Johnny Galecki (Leonard), Kaley Cuoco (Penny), Simon Helberg (Howard), Kunal Nayyar (Raj), Mayim Bialik (Amy) and Melissa Rauch (Bernadette) are undoubtedly the stars of The Big Bang Theory, many celebrities have still made notable appearances in the series. We obviously think of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and many more. However, if the fiction had the wind in its sails during its twelve seasons, some of these stars did not immediately agree to play in the sitcom. This is for example the case of William Shatner. Former Captain James T. Kirk from the TV series star trekand who offered a surprising gift to Tom Ellis (Lucifer), had indeed initially refused to integrate The Big Bang Theory.

William Shatner explains why he initially refused to star in The Big Bang Theory

The comedian actually felt like his character was going in no direction. Although William Shatner eventually reversed his decision, he needed more certainty about his role. About this, the actor said: “I had several conversations with the creators, and what they wanted me to do didn’t seem like exactly what was needed, so I said, ‘Find something better’. Maybe they took a dislike to it, I’m not sure… They wanted me to play myself in a bit of a roundabout way, and they said it would work, but I needed more assurance on this point“. But finally, during the last season, William Shatner made an appearance on the series, and one of the main reasons is… Kaley Cuoco! So the comedian played himself in episode 16 of the season 12 and he is not the only one to have said hello because the list of guest stars was well filled, with personalities like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Joe Manganiello and Kevin Smith.

Thanks to Kaley Cuoco, William Shatner agreed to play in The Big Bang Theory

In order to explain William Shatner’s change of heart, producer and showrunner Steve Holland spoke about the details of the latter’s arrival in The Big Bang Theory. What had changed this time? Well, it seems William Shatner’s relationship with Kaley Cuoco played a major role, as the two worked together for a commercial. The actor even asked to shoot a scene with Kaley Cuoco (who recently made shocking confidences about her depression because of her divorce) in the series.

“So we reached out to him again. I picked up the phone and talked to him about what we were thinking for the episode – at that point we didn’t have a script – but I think William felt he wanted to do part of it all before the series endedrevealed the producer. What changed for him to agree to play in the final season is, I think, he knows Kaley Cuoco from doing commercials with her and they are friends.And to conclude:When I got him on the phone, one of the first things he asked was, ‘Do I get to do a scene with Kaley?’“. And we can only understand it!