A Big Bang Theory star has revealed the moment she “accidentally M***urbated” on her first day on work.
Rising to prominence as Bernadette Rostenkowski on the hit sitcom, Melissa Rauch debuted in the third season as Penny’s (Kaley Cuoco) Cheesecake Factory colleague. Endearing herself to the viewers, her character eventually became a major player in the series forging a romantic relationship with Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and then becoming his wife.
Bernadette appeared to make a flawless introduction to viewers, but behind the scenes the reality was quite another tale. Rauch told Conan O’Brien about an incident that made her somewhat ashamed during a chat. She admitted, “I had a minor… mishap during the first episode of the season.”
Rauch said she felt pretty chilly in a hotel room during a certain scene. She responded by reflexively drawing the blankets up around her to just show her head. She started a motion like a Boy Scout trying to create a fire by rubbing sticks together, warming her hands. Unaware of how it would seem on video, the cold studio environment caused her to keep this behavior.
Credit: CBS
“So I’m under the covers, and it’s really cold on set because they keep it cold, and I’m under there and we’re shooting the scene and – out of habit – I’m doing this (rubbing hands together),” Rauch said.
She first noticed how it appeared after the action had been taped in front of a live studio audience.
Rauch carried on: “We photographed the entire sequence; a studio audience is present. Our director and producer then came up to me following the scene and said, “We need to see your hands in the next take – it looked like you were having way too much fun with yourself under the covers.”
Worse, an audience member also observed something strange about the scene. Rauch claimed a young child asked about the reshoot when she was chatting with viewers following the program.
She remembered: “This small child whispered to me, ‘Did you shoot that sequence again with your hands out because it looked weird? Because my dad remarked it looked strange.
Rauch called her mother to discuss her first day since she felt she should share the embarrassing experience with someone. But rather than comfort, she encountered dread.
“She says, ‘I hope people understand that you weren’t really doing that, that’s disgusting!”‘ Rauch remembered.
Her mother also voiced worry about the consequences of such misinterpretation, saying, “People have been fired from that, people have lost their livelihoods for doing that at movie theaters!”
The accident became a regular joke between the two, Rauch teasingly pointing out that weekly she would tell her mother something fresh had happened at work, only to hear: “Stop doing that! Again, you did it. Just enough; keep your hands to yourself!
Bernadette became a major player on The Big Bang Theory despite early awkwardness, and Rauch stayed with the program until its end.