When it comes to The Big Bang Theory, there are a whole bunch of stories about the wild casting process. Although Simon Helberg eventually earned the lead role of Howard Wolowitz, Kevin Sussman almost booked him ... and still ended up playing comic book owner Stuart Bloom on the show. Kunal Nayar, who plays Raj Kootrapally for the entire series, was almost fired before filming beganand Kaley Cuoco replaced the original female lead in the series with her character Penny. Johnny Galecki ended up playing Leonard Hofstadter for the show's entire 12-season (and 12-year) run, but before he came on board, John Ross Bowie auditioned for the part. Like Sussman, he ended up in a recurring role ... with a twist.

In a 2017 interview with SpectrumBowie told the outlet that he do audition for Leonard, but realized why Galecki got it. "They were looking at almost all the crazies in (Los Angeles) for the two leads and I actually read for the part of Leonard," Bowie recalled. "When I found out (Johnny) Galecki got it, I was uncharacteristically not bitter!" I didn't know him, but I was familiar with his work and I felt he was good for the role."

Here's the twist: creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady wanted a a lot specific type of actor. "They were looking for (repeat) 'villain,' and Chuck thought of me," Bowie said. "Originally, I played the character as an alpha nerd bully, but Chuck and Bill thought he should have some vulnerability, so Chuck suggested a speech impediment. I tried something subtle, but what came out was this Elmer Fudd voice.

The voice for the character who eventually became Barry Kripke - a plasma physicist and string theorist working at the California Institute of Technology with Leonard, Howard, Raj and Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) came out of a simple suggestion and obviously, although Bowie told Spectrum ” that he thought was a lot, Chuck Lorre really loved him. "Chuck had a very specific laugh and started giggling," Bowie recalled of his audition. "I started work the next day.

Technically, Barry Kripke suffers from a speech defect known as "rotatism", which is characterized by the person having trouble with the "R" sound (hence why Elmer Fudd from Looney Tunes was brought into the conversation, as he has the same question ). However, Bowie told Spectrum that he thinks Barry's speech impediment is perhaps the least interesting thing about the character, because it doesn't define him at all. "For all his flaws, Kripke's not a loser and he's incredibly smart, so I think there's something inherently powerful about the character," Bowie said, even saying Barry "wins more than he loses" when it comes to his rivalry with Sheldon .

Not only did John Ross Bowie help come up with the voice for Barry Kripke during his audition, but the entire character shifted a bit when Bowie came on board. In Jessica Radloff's 2022 book The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series, Bowie told Radloff the same story he told The Spectrum—namely, that he auditioned to plays Leonard, lost the role to Johnny Galecki, but understood and then improvised a voice during his audition that sealed his fate (in a good way), but added some details ... including the fact that a famous Star Trek actor crashed that audition.

After making Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady laugh with his "Elmer Fudd" voice, Bowie recalled, "Then there was a knock on the door and somebody poked their head in and said, 'Chuck, there's a phone call from Leonard Nimoy.' Normally, if they cut my audition for the King, I'm upset the character actually changed a bit to accommodate his cold reading "And then like half an hour later I'm driving home and I get a call that I have to appear at Warner Bros." The next day and they want to keep the speech impediment,'' recalls Bowie.

The Big Bang Theory, featuring all of Bowie's best moments as Barry Kripke, is now streaming on Max.