Galecki, 36, talked to Parade.com about his new role, bonding with co-star Justin Timberlake, and Big Bang Theory‘s upcoming 100th episode milestone.

On his latest film, In Time.
“I just thought it was so intelligent and clever. I went in to some meetings with [director] Andrew Niccol to talk about the character, and I said, ‘Why don’t you let me read it?’ I’m never really opposed to auditioning; in fact, I’m more comfortable with it. I probably shouldn’t say this because I’ll be kicking myself later, but you don’t hire a guy to paint your house by sitting down and having coffee with him, you want to see what kind of work he does.”

On stretching his dramatic acting chops.
“That was definitely a draw to this role. I love playing Leonard, but if you have an opportunity to do something different, you jump at it. I was actually doing the movie at night and the TV show during the day and sleeping in my dressing room at Warner Bros. for a couple hours in between. I want to mix it up creatively.”

On co-star Justin Timberlake.
“He’s a perfectionist. I was really impressed. He has a great instinct, whether he’s on or off camera. I’ve never seen someone who had such success in another area of entertainment be so willing to work as hard as he does. He doesn’t rest on any of those laurels. He knows that performing at Madison Square Garden doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be a great actor in an action film.”

On breaking the ice with JT.
“The first scene we were going to shoot together was the goodbye scene, so I went to set a couple days before just to kind of pal around with Justin a little bit. I didn’t want to shake his hand and then start a very emotional goodbye scene between us. The bar scene was fun too because we ran off to a nearby shooting gallery on our break. He is a far superior shot than I am. I don’t think the producers were necessarily thrilled about that, but you gotta blow off some steam somehow!”

On his early acting ambitions.
“I started talking about it when I was literally three-years-old. It’s almost creepy. I have no idea how I even knew what the word ‘actor’ meant. My parents tried to dissuade me, but there was a local community theater doing auditions for a production of Fiddler on the Roof that we read about it in the paper. I auditioned and got the role. I was just a kid in the chorus, but that was the beginning.”

On his passion for live sitcoms.
“It’s theater, really. That’s how we approach it. Our goal is to make these 22-minute plays every week. If it wasn’t for that live audience, I wouldn’t be half as happy and creatively satisfied as I am. That’s really the pot of the gold at the end of every workweek. I can be in some foul mood, but I hear that audience come in and I think how lucky I am. I get to go out there and try to make a few hundred people laugh. That’ll make anybody’s day!”

On his love for Leonard.
“Initially, I loved playing his frustration with his life. In the last season, I’m really enjoying his growth and his maturing. It’s happening at a snail’s pace, but that’s fun to mine. We’re approaching our 100th episode, and I’m trying to wrap my head around that. It’s just crazy, but I love working. I’m always happiest when I’m working.”

On being a poster boy for brainiacs. 
“It’s funny, I did not foresee that. These characters are so relatable apparently. I can’t tell you how often I hear, ‘My 12-year-old is just like your character,’ or ‘My great grandfather is just like your character.’ It doesn’t have any boundaries in age or geography. It really is very wide-reaching and that’s just a testament to the writers more than the performances.”

On his takeaway from his years on Roseanne.
“Just how much I learned from each of them. I started during their third season, so the cast bonding had already taken place, but it was really priceless to have those examples. Rose and John Goodman — you couldn’t have asked for a better college.”

Gallery Link:
- SEPTEMBER 18TH: EMMY AWARDS 

Gallery Links:
- July 22nd: San Diego Comic Con 2011

>> Chuck Lorre: “The show is about extraordinary people, not nerds”
>> Jim Parsons: “I just wanted the chance to play Sheldon in the pilot”
>> Moderator said “Penny digs nerds” & Kaley Cuoco responds: “Kaley digs nerds too! We’re just riding this wave as long as you let us.”
>> Kunal asked about bollywood: “It’s about really good looking people dancing around, dancing in the rain & making out.” (Crowd laughs)
>> Simon Helberg answers question if there is improv: “No we memorize lines and lean on the writers a whole lot!”
>> Melissa does an impression and says in the show mom voice: “What is this #comiccon you’re at? Is it some kind of sex convention?!”
>> Mayim Bialik: “I fell in love with biology when I was on blossom. I love neuroscience, I love academia.”
>> Mayim: “I had never watched the show but auditioned. They needed a female Jim Parsons & I was like who’s Jim Parsons?”
>> Bill Prady: “there will be a resolution & we think whichever way you came down on something that’s the way it works out.”
>> Cast fav moments — Kaley: “where a lovely man had to grab my ass when dancing. He was an older man and he was so nervous!”
>> Cast fav moments — Kunal: “when we had to learn the bollywood dance and learn the song. I got yelled at by the teacher.”
>> Fav moments — Simon: “I enjoyed wrestling w/ kunal on & off camera. I like putting the unitard on – very convenient piece of clothing”
>>  Bill Prady: “Sheldon seems singularly devoted to science. It’s biological if he’s actually vulcan”
>> Fan said he was in Iraq and TBBT got him through it. Sheldon: “Thank you for serving our country, Bazinga!”
>> Jim: “We are so lucky on this show. The shows stay interesting. The writers keep giving us things that are so organic and honest.”
>> Mayim: “there’s a little bit of suspended adolescence with my character and its fun to play. And yes, I’m a very sexual actress.”
>> On if the cast do nerdy pranks — Kaley: “we play a lot of ping pong.” Jim says: “that was lame Kaley.”
>> Johnny: “my first screen kiss was with Mayim”
>> Fan Q: Was it embarrassing singing Soft Kitty? Kaley: “it was fun!” Jim: “It was awkward for me, I had to bare flesh!”
>> Kunal was asked a question & said he didn’t understand, so Simon repeated the question w/ an indian accent. The fans cracked up!
>> Last fan question: What do u have in common w/ ur characters? Kaley: “I live next door to people.” Melissa: “we’re both really short”
>> What do u have in common w/ ur characters? Simon: “I would say there’s very little. I do have an affinity for clothes.”

From @TVGuide:

>> Mayim Bialik jokes that kissing Kaley Cuoco was her favorite scene, but it was really when Amy got drunk
>> Chuck Lorre: “Mayim is a very sexual actress. She’s a very dirty, dirty girl. Full-frontal nudity this year.” He’s kidding…
>> Bill Prady says Sheldon’s kiss with Wolowitz’s mom doesn’t count. Amy is his real first kiss.
>> “Cheers brought people to alcoholism. TBBT brought people to science,” says Chuck Lorre

From @Jimmy722:

>> Jim Parsons didn’t try to make Sheldon sympathetic, but he’s always felt human and empathetic to him as an actor “he’s a lovely fella”
>> Johnny was doing a play in new york when Chuck Lorre called him for the job, he knew they had magic at the first table read.
>> Applause for Jim and Johnny’s Emmy nominations. “The competition is fierce?” Johnny: “Always. Since Day one.”
>> Mayim’s favorite part of the season was having a drunk kiss with Sheldon.
>> Did we just get boo’d at Comic-Con?” – creators of TBBT after Kaley asks what T.I.M.E. stands for. Audiences was not happy.
>> Mayim (the neuroscientist) helps Jim understand some of what Sheldon says.
>> Jim says the most takes he’s ever had to do of anything ever was “rock paper scissors Spock”
>> No more Sara Gilbert on TBBT : Bill Prady says she’s unavailable to them because of her commitment to THE TALK.
>> Man comes dressed as Howard : “He’s dressed like me and he’s asking Amy questions!” Simon jokes.
>> Mayim is noting she is breaking all of her “What Not To Wear” tips she got from the episode with her character’s wardrobe.
>> “You’re the only person who can help with dialogue!” Jim says to Mayim, after she says he says she’s the nerdiest person on the cast.

Pleased to congratulate the Cast & Crew of The Big Bang Theory for their Emmy nominations this year!

1. Outstanding Comedy Series – The Big Bang Theory
2. Outstanding Actor in a Comedy – Jim Parsons
3. Outstanding Actor in a Comedy – Johnny Galecki

Penny (Cuoco) dated the geeky scientist throughout the third season of the CBS sitcom, but the pair later broke up.

“It’s really back and forth,” she told E! Online. “I don’t think the writers know [what's going to happen]. It’s all a big question, like, should it be, shouldn’t be? [We are] pulled in every direction.”

Discussing Penny and Leonard’s break-up in September, Cuoco’s co-star Galecki suggested: “I’m hard-pressed to believe that’ll be the end of it.”

The Big Bang Theory star has a great role, too. Turns out he’ll be playing none other than… himself. Well except that it’s supposed to be a tougher version of himself. I’m really hoping that means he’ll be able to throw some mega star-like hissy fits and tantrums, complete with brawls and throwing cell phones at people.

In the episode, Eric (Kevin Connolly) and Scott (Hawaii Five-O’s Scott Caan) reportedly take on Johnny as a client and word is that he, like all bad boys do, might just be trying to make some moves on other guy’s chicks. Looks like he’s going to be trying some moves on Eric’s lady, Sloan (Emmanuelle Chriqui) which I’m sure will not go over well with our favorite little Irishman. I think Johnny better watch out, Eric may be little but he’s no wimp.

This last season (the show’s eighth) has been confirmed as the last and it looks like they’re not pulling out any stops when it comes to lining up some great guest stars. I can’t wait to see who they announce next.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHNNY AND KUNAL!

Three years later some scientists still say that although the series, “The Big Bang Theory” (Monday nights on CBS), is funny and scientifically accurate, they are put off by it. “Makes me cringe,” said Bruce Margon, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, explaining, “The terrible stereotyping of the nerd plus the dumb blond are steps backwards for science literacy.”

Lisa Randall, a Harvard particle theorist who has visited the show’s set twice and appeared as an uncredited extra in one scene said, “I do think the writers are genuinely clever.” Lawrence Krauss, a cosmologist at Arizona State, and author of “The Physics of Star Trek,” said he had changed his initial dire opinion about the program. “First, because it is funny, and continues to be,” he said. “Second, because the characters have developed softer edges, and one of them has the girl!”

The point of the show, Mr. Prady said, is to tell small stories. “We are not doing ‘Lost,’ we’re not doing a complex novel for TV,” he said. “We follow the characters, and let them tell us what they’re going to do next. We’re telling stories about outsiders. We all feel like outsiders. Can you find love? Penny pulls Leonard to the outside world; Sheldon pulls him back.” Mr. Lorre said that the whole “challenge and joy” of a series like this is character development. “Maybe at the end of the day this will inspire some kids to go into physics,” he added, “just like ‘Cheers’ inspired countless young people to go into bars.”

Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki insists he won’t be making any diva-like demands when he appears at Australia’s top TV awards next month.

In fact the star, who plays geeky Leonard Hofstadter in the hit show, says all he wants on his rider at the Logie Awards is a Jamba Juice drink.

The 34-year-old told Australia’s TV Week magazine: “All I ask is for a Jamba Juice. I pay for it with my own money. I always do that. I just can’t go and get it because I’m in makeup.”

Galecki had just been asked if the success of The Big Bang Theory, which has taken off ratings-wise in its third season, had inspired any “diva” behaviour among the actors. “Kunal didn’t used to sit like that last year — now look at him,” an amused Galecki said. Everyone turned to see Nayyar slouched in a chair, legs protruding, with an expression of ironic detachment. “What’s up, rock star?” Galecki bellowed, as both groups laughed and Nayyar meekly protested that he always sits that way. “You are very cool over there, like a member of Oasis or something.” Certainly, if anyone in TV comedy has “rock star status” these days, it’s the cast of The Big Bang Theory.

[...] Leonard and Sheldon share an apartment, and living across the hall is the fetching Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco. As the series has progressed, and against all odds, Leonard and Penny have embarked upon a romantic relationship. “I guess Kaley and I were pretty surprised, but Chuck (Lorre, co-creator and co-executive producer) explained it in a way that makes perfect sense — and not just because he’s my boss,” Galecki said. “Dangling that romantic carrot over an audience’s head has been done many, many times, and it has been done very, very well many times. But these characters come from such different worlds, I don’t think they can begin to figure anything out without taking a plunge. I’m talking like I know what makes a healthy and happy relationship. I don’t know. But let them roll the dice and see what happens first, and maybe we can keep it going for a bit.”

[...] “I hope it’s a little bit easier or else I didn’t learn a damn thing,” Galecki said. “Kaley (who had a role in the sitcom 8 Simple Rules) and I both experienced a little bit of it before, in our previous work. But it is amazing how everybody is reacting to this in such positive, positive way.”The previously unknown Parsons has been the breakout star of The Big Bang Theory with his portrayal of über-nerd Sheldon. Listening to Galecki, it sounds as if one of the things he is most gratified about is what the show has done for Parsons, and vice versa. “Jim’s story, to me, is so incredible,” Galecki said. “Having met him four years ago when he was living in Brooklyn and pounding the pavement for Dimetapp commercials, he is talented, but he works so, so hard. Every struggling actor should read his story, or pay attention to his story, because it’s hopeful and not just because he didn’t win the lotto. He worked hard and paid his dues for a long, long time. And still, with the attention he gets, he is such a great guy and it still is all about the work for him, for all of us — except the rock-star component.”

The cast of ‘Friday Night Lights” (Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Aimee Teegarden, Scott Porter, Adrianne Palicki, Jesse Plemons and Louanne Stephens) presenting the Abe Burrows Entertainment Award to the show’s executive producer, Jason Katims. Actor J. K. Simmons leading cast members from CBS’s “Big Bang Theory” (Kaley Cuoco, Johnny Galecki, Simon Helberg, Jim Parsons, and Kunal Nayyar), in a rousing rendition of the show’s finale, “You’ve Gotta Have Heart.”

UPDATE: More photos of Kaley and Jim added. (Some Jim photos thanks to jimparsons.net)