US TV star Emily Osment has revealed she requested an intimacy coordinator because she was concerned about the 12-year age gap with her Young Sheldon co-star, who was only 18 at the time.
There were no sex scenes in the show, but she and Montana Jordan played characters whose relationship develops into a romantic one, which included kissing scenes.
‘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 revealed in Jessica Radloff’s new book on the making on the making of the show, Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw’s-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy.
‘It made everything easier having one there. I think it’s something that’s really important,’ she added, per Variety.
Intimacy coordinators act as advocates, liaisons and choreographers for actors during scenes involving nudity, simulated sex or intimacy, protecting both them and everyone present on set during shooting.
The now 34-year-old younger sister to former child star Haley Joel Osment played Mandy McAllister while Jordan, now 23, was George ‘Georgie’ Cooper – older brother to The Big Bang Theory’s central character, physics whizz Sheldon Cooper, played by Jim Parsons in the original sitcom and Iain Armitage (now 18 himself) in the Young Sheldon spin-off.
She added: ‘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].’
Show director Alex Reid also admitted that they ‘totally dropped the ball’ in not thinking to engage an intimacy coordinator for kissing scenes between Osment and Jordan, just because the two actors didn’t have any sex scenes on the CBS show.
He also expressed his regret at putting his performers in that ‘embarrassing situation’.
‘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”,’ Reid recalled, adding that ‘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,’ he said.
Co-creator Steve Molaro also agreed that Osment had ‘every right to ask’ for an intimacy coordinator, before noting that eventually ‘she was comfortable without one’.
Mandy gave birth to her and Georgie Cooper’s daughter Constance ‘CeeCee’ Cooper during season six of the show, after he gets her pregnant when he was just 17 and she was 29.
When they first met, Georgie lied about his age, claiming he was 21, while Mandy also lied, saying she was 25 – with the truth only coming out after they started dating, and Mandy subsequently found out she was pregnant with CeeCee.
Her birth then spawned the spin-off Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage, which first aired in October 2024, five months after Young Sheldon ended its seven-year run.
It’s still going strong, despite the network’s initial worries about greenlighting a series that explores a relationship with such a significant age gap.
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage airs on TLC UK and strams via Discovery+ in the UK.