Big Bang Theory Summer Hiatus

Working on “The Big Bang Theory” is awesome for a lot of reasons.

I basically get paid to play make-believe. I’ve been acting professionally since I was 11 years old and although I’ve done other things in my life, as an actor, the goal is to be employed and make your living as an actor. I feel really blessed to be able to do that.

I’m a scientist in real life and it’s very important to me to portray a positive-based (and female-based at that!) spin on science. By playing neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler, I get to show 20 million people every week a real incarnation of a female scientist.

Being on a show that is watched by so many people all over the world is truly an unbelievable thing to be a part of. People identify with the characters on our show, especially their struggles and their personality quirks. Since our show has been on almost a decade, many people have grown up while watching – and we get fan mail and fan encounters with people who feel truly touched by our show. As one of the actors on the show, that touches me.

This past year, Chuck Lorre and our cast and crew established a Big Bang Theory scholarship fund for students entering stem fields at UCLA who are in need of financial scholarships. It’s really a blessing to be in a position where our show is popular enough that we can establish a scholarship fund so that people can pursue science the way the characters on our show have.

Another reason why working on “The Big Bang Theory” is awesome is that we work a schedule that is very similar to that of a school year. We basically film from August through the end of April and we have vacation for the months of May, June, and July. Growing up with parents who were teachers, I loved having summer vacation with my parents around. We took family trips, and it basically felt like my parents got to unwind just like I did during the summer.

Most actors seek to work year-round, but I’m grateful to have some downtime this summer. I don’t have any movies booked and while I go on auditions and such, I may not do other acting work this summer and I get to work on being in acceptance of that!

The reason I’m not super-stressed about it is because I’m a mom of two sons who are 7-almost 8-and 10. From August to the end of April, I don’t get to see my kids as much as I do during these hiatus months. I miss them and I miss being an at-home mom. Their dad, my ex-husband, gets to take them to all of their activities and homeschool classes and play dates and all the other fun things that happen during the week when I am typically working. This hiatus, I plan to take them to their activities and classes and play dates and a lot of fun things like going to the beach and taking hikes and also just hanging around the house.

I hope to go camping with my kids and also take them to Northern California to visit their grandparents (my ex’s folks). I might plan a trip with them to Oregon to visit some family and friends, but I’m not really sure. I don’t want to over-plan the hiatus because as soon as I turn around, it’s going to feel like it’s time to go back to work; it’s important to leave some days and weekends and weeks open just for life stuff, I think.

Obviously, there is boring normal “life stuff” I do during hiatus as well. Because I am not constrained by the schedule of a workweek, I get to go to the dentist and get a checkup and try and have some sort of regular exercise regimen.

I also will hopefully keep my house cleaner than it usually is and the refrigerator stocked with food on a more regular basis than normal. A lot of people think it’s crazy, but I don’t have a housekeeper and I do pretty much all of my own shopping, so during the months of hiatus, it’s much easier for me to do that because I’m not planning it around my work schedule. Also, I’m one of those people who gets very easily distracted and intimidated in supermarkets and when I work, the only time I have to go is usually evenings or Sundays, which is pretty much when everyone in the universe goes shopping. This hiatus, I look forward to taking trips to the supermarket and taking as much time as I want to shop without feeling like someone’s going to run me over with their shopping cart.

I’m also going to be working on something very exciting this summer which I can do really any time of day and whenever my boys are not with me. I’m writing a book that I’m really excited about! I can’t talk about details quite yet but will very soon, and exclusively right here at GrokNation…so stay tuned!!

Until then, even though it’s not summer yet technically, it feels like summer here! So if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go mop the floors and hit the market.

[Editor’s note – Want to make sure you don’t miss Mayim’s big book-related announcement? Make sure you get notified as soon as new posts go up on GrokNation.com: sign up for “notifications” in the column at right of this post!]