Wow, thank you.
What's up, man?
Thanks for being here.
Thank you so much.
Absolutely.
And I need to say, thank you
for being my first celebrity
interview.
Wow.
And congrats on the finale
of The Big Bang Theory.
Thank you so much.
Or should I be saying I'm sorry?
How are you feeling?
I'm hung over.
I drank my weight in
tequila last night.
So I am exhausted.
We shot on Tuesday.
And then yesterday,
in the morning,
we got our hands imprinted in
front of the Chinese Grauman
Theatre.
Nice.
It was incredible.
Huge.
And I don't know.
I don't think there's any word
in any language ever written
that could describe what
I'm feeling all of it.
I'm feeling sad.
I'm feeling exhilarated.
I'm feeling tired.
I'm emotionally.
I'm cried out.
I'm laughed out, all of it, so
probably a little overwhelmed.
But I couldn't miss this.
I'm so happy to see you.
I'm dressing like you, and
you're dressing like me.
Exactly, yeah.
What's happening?
Well, I knew what
we were going to do.
You know what I mean?
I thought you were
going to wear a hat.
So I wore this.
But then you didn't.
But then I let you--
but listen.
With all that emotion,
man, you made history.
You guys are the
longest running sitcom--
12 seasons, 279 episodes.
Wow.
So I got to know.
How was that final taping?
The final taping, I had held
it together pretty much pretty
well.
But then, in the last
scene that I was shooting,
they added a joke.
And I said it, and I thought I
would get another chance at it,
because we shoot
most takes twice.
But no, I got it.
And then they said
all right, moving on.
And then that was
the last words I was
going to say as that character.
So as I was walking up
to my dressing room,
with every step, the realization
that those were the last words
I would ever see as Raj
began to really sink in.
And I cried.
I cried a lot.
It was very cathartic.
It was nice, actually.
I'm not much of a crier, so it
felt really wonderful to cry.
But yeah, it was--
I'm really going to
miss playing him,
because it was nice to
show up to work every day
and play a character
that was so pure and so
innocent and hopeful.
And I think that that's
pretty rare these days.
So it's really wonderful.
And can you say yet?
Can you say what you've taken
from the set to remember Raj?
Did you steal anything
on the way out?
You're like, you know what?
This is the last time.
I'm going to just
take this with me.
Yeah, I mean, what are
they going to do, fire me?
I can say anything
I want, literally.
No, I haven't actually
taken anything from the set.
But we're just down
here, so I think
I'm going to swing by right
now because no one is there.
So I can take whatever I want.
I think I'm just going
to take the whole couch.
Just drop back by, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Now, this is really,
really interesting, man.
This is now 12 years ago.
You were not doing this at all.
This was your first TV show.
Is that right?
Yes, yes.
I had just gotten my master's
in acting in graduate school.
And I'd spent some time
at the Royal Shakespeare
Company in England.
And I'd come back.
And I was a waiter at
a raw food restaurant.
Yeah, I know.
I remember I auditioned.
I didn't have a car at the
time, so I rented a car
to audition for the show.
And for the final callback
for Warner Brothers,
I rented the cheapest
car that I could afford.
But they bumped me up because
they ran out of the small cars.
And it was a Toyota Solara,
Solaris, or something.
And it was a convertible.
It was white.
You was California
living though, yeah.
Exactly.
And then I remember taking
the top down and driving out
to Warner Brothers.
I played "California Love."
And I was like,
(SINGING) California.
And I was like, I
could get used to this.
You know what I mean?
Turned in the keys,
went back to my job.
But it really felt. And then
the universe aligned itself.
And here we are.
Absolutely, and
then so many years.
So now, with this wrapping up,
what are you doing this summer?
You've got time now.
What are you going
to do to relax?
I'm going to eat a
lot of pasta and pizza
and put on a lot of weight.
And I'm going to rent a boat
and sail the south of France.
I'm going to spend a
weekend in Ibiza, Ibitha,
however they pronounce it.
They're pretty
cynical about that.
