Iain Armitage has revealed his surprisingly positive reaction to Young Sheldon coming to an end, admitting he was “the most happy” when the hit sitcom wrapped in 2024.
The actor, now 18, spent seven seasons playing the younger version of Sheldon Cooper, the socially awkward child genius originated by Jim Parsons in The Big Bang Theory.
Reflecting on the show’s conclusion in Jessica Radloff’s new book, Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw’s-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy, Armitage said he was “the most happy about the show ending” compared with his castmates.
He explained that he wasn’t “going home and crying all day,” unlike some of his co-stars, who found the end of the series more difficult to accept.
Armitage said it felt “heavy and annoying and weird” to continue mourning the show’s conclusion, adding that he didn’t want to “stay in that heaviness forever”.
The teenage star added: “Plus, I wanted to be in Virginia. I wanted to be traveling, and I’m happy to do whatever movie comes up.
“And my mom has always imbued me with a very healthy sense of ephemerality, and the fact that nothing good can last and everything changes, and that’s a good thing.
“I would hate to be on a show playing 23-year-old Sheldon. That would suck. I wouldn’t want to do that.”
Still, Iain — who was eight years old when the series started — admitted he finds it “nostalgic sad” to look back on that time.
He explained: “I miss working at Warner Bros., I miss the crew and the people I love.
“I love the act of acting. I love doing it. It’s fun. But not really specific moments. More the overall thing.”
Elsewhere in the book, Iain confessed that despite being a “complete privilege”, being on a show that huge was a “big undertaking for an eight-year-old”.
He said: “I always did the best that I could, and sometimes kids are not perfect.
“I was grateful to the people who understood that and gave me grace.”
Meanwhile, Lance Barber, who played Sheldon’s dad George Sr. on Young Sheldon, admitted some things “boiled up a little” as the show neared its conclusion.
In the book, he said: “And Iain was ready, too … to move on to something else, artistically, and maybe personally … with things that boiled up a little bit toward the end of the season.
“I think a lot of people felt there were certain elements of the show that they were ready to move on from.”
The same year Young Sheldon aired, Iain also started appearing in Big Little Lies as Ziggy Chapman, a part he played until 2019.
He lent his voice to a couple of episodes of Ghostwriter in 2022, and played a version of himself in the US version of Ghosts earlier this year.
On the big screen, he has voiced a young Shaggy Rogers in Scoob!, and Chase in 2021’s Paw Patrol: The Movie.
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