In The Big Bang Theory, each character has certain characteristics that make them more recognizable. For Howard, it’s his hairstyle and his turtleneck, or for Sheldon, the colorful T-shirts, often with comic motifs. At Leonard was particularly influenced by his glasses for the appearance of his character. This exact accessory almost became a problem and was not even wanted by the makers.
Leonard’s glasses would have been very disruptive during filming of The Big Bang Theory
During the promotional tour for Rings – Evil is Back in 2017, Johnny Galecki spoke to the Huffington Post, among others. The question arose as to why he was Leonard on The Big Bang Theory wears glasses without lenses. At first he jokingly answered that the question would kill magic, but in the end he answered it honestly:
We rehearsed the first episode for about a week and a half and when we started shooting they said, “So, you’re going to take your glasses off, right?”
The makers assumed that Johnny Galecki wore privately, but the actor did actually doesn’t need any visual aid at all. He put on the glasses because he wanted them to be part of his character. And the idea caught on.
However, the crew encountered some problems. Since Galecki is significantly smaller than co-star Jim Parsons, he often had to look up during conversations. The upward-tilted lenses caught the spotlights on the ceiling of the studio. The reflections could then be seen in the cameras, disrupting both the image and the illusion for the audience. But Galecki didn’t want to lose the glasses as part of the character simply removed the glasses.
In retrospect, this solution was not only simple, but also clever. Because the glasses have not only become a part of Leonard, without which the character would appear different. She is also part numerous gags and story elementswhich ended up making Leonard even more memorable and lovable.