Posted in: HBO, Max, TV | Tagged: stuart fails to save the universe

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Bowie on Playing Alt-Reality Kripke

The Big Bang Theory star John Ross Bowie on rediscovering Barry Kripke's voice for Stuart Fails to Save the Universe and alt-reality Kripke.

John Ross Bowie is as close to any true antagonist in CBS's The Big Bang Theory, playing physicist Barry Kripke, who has rhotacism, a speech impediment made famous by Looney Tunes' Elmer Fudd, since season two and appearing every season until the final, across 25 episodes, as the foil to leads Johnny Galecki's Leonard Hofstadter and Jim Parsons' Sheldon Cooper at Caltech. Now, he gets to become a true supervillain he was destined to be, or at least, his alternate version as the "Supreme Leader of Pasadena" in a post-apocalyptic California in the dimension-hopping sci-fi spinoff Stuart Failed to Save the Universe that stars Kevin Sussman, reprising the title character of Stuart Bloom, TBBT fan favorite comic book owner and sad sack. Speaking with TV Line, Bowie opened up about his Kripke return, his dictator multiverse counterpart, seven years after the Chuck Lorrie-created series ended in 2019, and fans only had two Sheldon-centric spinoffs since, with prequel shows, Young Sheldon, and, currently, George & Mandy's First Marriage.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe Star John Ross Bowie on Barry Kripke's Newfound Status in The Big Bang Theory Sci-Fi Spinoff

When asked about rediscovering his Kripke voice, "It was interesting. It snapped back pretty quickly. The challenge this time was that, unlike on the old show, I was there every week. For the three or four months we shot, because normally I would come in, I'd do Kripke, they wouldn't see me for six or so months, and then I'd come back," Bowie said. "It was actually harder to get out of the voice this time, and I would find it carrying through to my daily life, which is rough, because both of my children have L's in their names. There were extra challenges presented by playing Kripke so steadily over the length of this shoot, but it came back to me pretty quickly. It's muscular."

Regarding his alt's position of influence as "Supreme Leader" and settling in, "I mean, it is the logical next step in his evolution. You know, nature abhors a vacuum, and he will step in and take that power. That is it exactly. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that he does that," Bowie said. "It felt like a very natural progression for Kripke to become a totalitarian, and we even dressed him in a color that, on set, we referred to as Qaddafi Blue [laughs]. We're just exploring how power corrupts."

As far as the lengths of how far Kripke will go about power corrupting, "That's a really good question, but it turns out you can always get a little bit worse," he said. "As bad as Kripke was in the 'Mothership,' he actually might be a little bit worse. And then he has kind of an interesting arc throughout the rest of this series, which was fun to play. No spoilers, but what was cool about these four characters, who were secondary on the original show, being put front and center. That we were given a chance to flesh them out a bit more and get a clearer idea of what makes them tick, and maybe not excuse any behavior, but explain some of it, at least. So it was really fun to be back in a different facility than on the original show.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe follows Stuart, Denise (Lauren Lapkus), Bert (Brian Posehn), and Kripke as they stumble upon Leonard and Shelton's interdimensional device, which allows them to travel through the multiverse and into Warner Bros. ' list of owned IPs they can crossover into. TBBT favorites like Wil Wheaton, Christine Baranski, Riki Lindhome, and Penn & Teller will appear, but it's not known if they'll be reprising their series roles since the fictionalized spinoff version of Wheaton possesses superpowers. Another Lorre series favorite from Two and a Half Men alum Jon Cryer will also appear. For more on Bowie breaking down why he enjoys the chemistry with the three other leads, calling the series "X-Men for fuck-ups," going from sitcom to multiverse misfit sci-fi adventure, exploring other WB's pop culture IPs like The Matrix, and more, you can check out the entire interview. The series premieres on HBO Max on July 23.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!