Interview: Lance Barber & Zoe Perry On Playing Parents To Young Sheldon
Lance Barber and Zoe Perry play parents George and Mary to 11-year-old Sheldon Cooper, who is a young gifted genius trying navigate the world.
As we delve into season 3, Barber and Perry talk about how their characters have come since the first season. In the interview transcript provided by Warner TV, the duo also share their thoughts on their TV son, Annie Potts’ Meemaw and 80s music.
After two seasons of Young Sheldon, does your on-screen family feel a bit like a real family now? You guys must spend a lot of time together.
Lance: Yeah, I think with any work you do, if you’re with people that many hours a day, it does feel like that. Inevitably, whether it’s contentious or happy, there’s going to be some elements of family feel. Luckily, we all like each other and get along, which isn’t the case always. So, it is a lucky thing that we all do get along and like each other, and the kids are comfortable and affectionate with us. And I’m a parent and Zoe is so phenomenal with kids, so it all worked out very well. It does feel like family.
Zoe: Yeah, totally. I think it is something that we’ve felt very privileged about and that we had luck of having an instant chemistry with one another right off the bat. It was wild, because you don’t always get that.
Do you feel like you’ve taken on any of the traits of your characters? Are there some similarities?
Lance: Yeah, being a dad. He’s a different dad than I am, in regards to a time and a place. He’s from a certain culture and a man of a certain time, and a certain fathering paradigm – I think that mine’s a little more contemporary and modern, and a little more thoughtful. But that’s what I love about George – he doesn’t have those tools, but he’s trying. He’s trying to deal with somebody he really doesn’t understand. And I think that’s noble and charming. He could have been all different kinds of things, you know?
Sheldon is of course incredibly quirky and has a lot of peculiar habits. Do you have any comparable Sheldon-like quirky habits?
Lance: I feel like when I was a kid, I may have had. I was a bit introverted as a kid. I was one of those. When you’re an actor, either you’re an extrovert, like Iain Armitage, who plays Sheldon, or you’re an introvert who is shy and maybe a little uncomfortable, and you found a community and some comfort by getting into the arts. Which was my story – I think that’s a common story as well.
Tell me about working with Annie Potts who plays Meemaw. She seems like an absolute delight.
Zoe: She’s awesome!
Lance: She’s phenomenal! She’s every bit as Annie Potts-y that you would think that she is. She’s just wonderfully talented and wonderful to be around. She’s someone that I grew up watching and admiring. It’s such a thrill that at this point in my life, I get to work with her. When I was a young kid, I was watching her and thinking she was so terrific in things like Ghostbusters and Pretty in Pink. To get to work with her is a trip and she is a firecracker, man. She’s really fantastic!
Zoe: Yeah. Class act, that Annie Potts.
