A new tell-all book about Young Sheldon revealed the offscreen concerns about having Montana Jordan and Emily Osment bring Georgie and Mandy’s controversial age gap romance to life — including a request for an intimacy coordinator.
Jessica Radloff‘s Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw’s-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy, which is out now, pulled back the curtain on a specific incident after Osment, now 34, joined the show in 2022 and questioned the lack of an intimacy coordinator.
Director Alex Reid acknowledged that they didn’t have sex scenes on the CBS show so they “totally dropped the ball” while filming kissing scenes between Osment and Jordan, now 23, adding, “I have a photo between takes of them sitting in that car when we shot that, and they’re looking off in other directions. I showed it to Emily and she said, ‘Yeah, that was so uncomfortable for both of us, because we didn’t know each other.’ It wasn’t even about the lack of an intimacy coordinator. It’s just you’re having to make out with somebody you just kind of met. Obviously they worked that out, and they have a great chemistry now, but that was kind of embarrassing.”
Cocreator Steve Molaro noted that Osment had “every right to ask” for an intimacy coordinator and eventually “she was comfortable without one.” Writer Connor Kilpatrick, meanwhile, pointed out that Jordan and former onscreen love interest Isabel May filmed similar scenes without bringing someone else in to help map out the sequence.
“Montana had done it before, and I think assuming falsely, wrongly, on our part, and Emily was a pro and had done this a million times, that that wasn’t needed,” Kilpatrick added. “I know there’s a scene between them later where she did ask for an intimacy coordinator ahead of time, and we had one.”
Osment, however, clarified that her “concern” was “discomfort” from Jordan being eighteen. (At the time of filming their initial episodes together, Jordan was six weeks away from turning 19.)
“That made me uncomfortable. He was a baby! A baby with a mullet. So I spoke to Tim Marx and obviously they were not able to get one that late in the day but for the next few episodes they had one there, since the relationship between them escalates,” Osment explained. “It made everything easier having one there. I think it’s something that’s really important.”
She continued: “I don’t know if Montana even knew if he could ask for that. Like, let’s give him the option, too. Make him comfortable. And he’s such a sweet kid, I think he would just eat his discomfort. But I love those guys, and I’m really happy it got to the point where they were able to do that [for us].”
Young Sheldon viewers remember that after meeting during season 5 of the Big Bang Theory prequel, Georgie, who was 17 at the time, lied that he was 21, while 29-year-old Mandy pretended to be 25. Georgie and Mandy ultimately came clean — and then realized that they were expecting their first baby.
The fictional couple is now at the center of their own show — Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage — but initially there were concerns about exploring a romance with such a significant age gap. According to an interview with showrunner Steve Holland, which was featured in Radloff’s book, there were discussions to make sure the dynamic was not “illegal.”
Young Sheldon‘s spinoff Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage isn’t afraid to address the controversial 12-year age gap between the fictional couple on screen. Georgie (Montana Jordan) became a fan favorite after The Big Bang Theory expanded with a prequel about Sheldon’s (Iain Armitage) time as a child prodigy growing up in Texas. Sheldon’s older brother […]
“But in Texas, 17 was the age of consent, and not that it’s not creepy, but we were trying to build the story in a way that no one was doing anything wrong,” he continued. “And there is a twelve-year age gap, but they don’t look like it. It doesn’t look like she’s with a child in any way, which also made it more believable for her. And he was at work during school hours, so you don’t think of a high-school-age kid. He lied about his age, and she lied about her age. So we were trying to walk this tricky line.”
Molaro agreed that “no laws” were broken but there were “moral questions” about exploring a romance under those circumstances. Molaro also recalled back and forth about what age Mandy would be. Osment recalled an age range of 27 to 35 being thrown out there before they settled on Mandy being in her late 20s.
Jordan’s mother, meanwhile, told Radloff she was “very uncomfortable” at first. She has since walked back her concerns — while Jordan wasn’t as worried.
“People still say stuff about it. They bring up, like, ‘What if it was the other way around?’ Which, OK, true. If it was the other way around it would be pretty weird,” he said. “Because I was about to be nineteen, I never really put much thought into it. Obviously it’s a strange thing, though, and I had no idea what it would turn into at the time. But we had this great chemistry and it worked.”
Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw’s-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy is out now.
