Simon Helberg Says He Was 'Paralyzed By Fear and Anxiety' During Height of “Big Bang Theory” Fame
Simon Helberg Says He Was 'Paralyzed By Fear and Anxiety' During Height of “Big Bang Theory” Fame
Virginia ChamleeTue, June 9, 2026 at 9:24 PM UTC
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Simon HelbergCredit: Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty; Araya Doheny/Getty -
Simon Helberg is opening up about the anxiety he experienced as The Big Bang Theory grew in popularity
Helberg played Howard Wolowitz on the show from 2007 to 2019
In a new podcast, he said, "I just always felt like I was going to kind of fall apart"
Simon Helberg says the success of The Big Bang Theory led to a sense of anxiety for "eight or nine years."
In a recent interview on the Dinner's On Mepodcast with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Helberg, 45, said, "I was, I would say, pretty paralyzed with fear and anxiety for like the first eight or nine years."
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Big Bang TheoryCredit: Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty
Asked by Ferguson if the stress came as a result of "the weight of the job" or "losing anonymity," Helberg responded, "Yeah I think everything was contributing to it, but I just, I ran very like hot, just very nervous, very, very anxiety-ridden."
"With the success came just the pressure, and also then, the expectation that it would be just, sort of, like a walk in the park. Like all my dreams should be coming true," the actor added. "And it just felt so scary to me all the time. I just felt so scared."
He continued: "I just always felt like I was going to kind of fall apart."
The actor — who played Howard Wolowitz on the show from 2007 to 2019 — added: "There was like a certainly like a low point of just kind of seizing up and I had a couple therapists and I was trying medication and it was not, it was not great. Like it just wasn't a good experience."
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Helberg has been married to his wife, Jocelyn Towne, since 2007, and the couple have two children, daughter Adeline and son Wilder.
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Helberg has previously opened up about experiencing anxiety, saying in a 2016 interview with ABC that he is "constantly bubbling over with anxiety and fear and excitement and all of that stuff."
The actor added that he got advice from one co-star, Meryl Streep, with whom he appeared in the film Florence Foster Jenkins,
In one scene in which he had to laugh hysterically, the actor said he felt "terrified" — and Streep offered her take on how to handle it.
"There's a scene ... where the whole scene is just me laughing in this elevator. And I was terrified," Helberg told ABC. "It was the dark cloud hanging over me because it's a really hard thing to do as an actor. I feel like it's harder than crying to just stand there and laugh hysterically and go into a fit."
He continued: "Her answer was always really frustrating. Because it was like, 'Oh, I just believed it. I just was laughing.' Then I was sort of like, 'But how do you? But how?' Eventually she said, 'Try to cry.' That always makes me laugh."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
