Nearly two decades ago, Kevin Sussman starred as Stuart Bloom, an owner of the downtrodden shop owner, in The Big Bang Theory.
But out of pure coincidence, the actor was a real-life worker at a comic book shop.
He recalled being cast during the promotion of The Big Bang Theory spin-off based on Sussman’s on-screen role, titled Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.
“That was a coincidence by the way. Chuck did not know. He had seen me for various other roles, but that was just a weird coincidence,” he said.
Sussaman joked restaurants did not hire him, so he opted for a comic book store.
“It was just my day job when I was an actor because I couldn’t get a waiter job because no one would believe, no one could convincingly think I could carry dishes around.”
Besides Sussman’s muses, Chuck Lorre, who served as the sitcom creator, said the idea of the spin-off was born into his mind instantly after ended: a portal in the Stuarts’ store.
“I’ve always wanted to work in a bigger genre than what we were doing in front of an audience,” he said, adding, “I loved what we did in front of an audience, but the idea of working with visual effects and computer graphics and all the things that you can do now [was appealing.”
Gushing about Sussman, Lorre added, “I’ve been a longtime fan of Mr. Sussman and I just thought he’d be the perfect lead for this kind of a comedy. As far as the melding of it with comedy is concerned; something’s funny or it’s not.”
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is streaming on HBO Max.
