Emily Osment, 34, says she requested an intimacy coordinator for her kissing scenes with Young Sheldon co-star Montana Jordan because of their nearly 12-year age gap, according to Page Six. Jordan, now 23, was 18 when the scenes were filmed, and Osment shared the account in Jessica Radloff's new book on the hit CBS comedy.
Osment made the comments in Radloff's new book, Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw's-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy. "That made me uncomfortable. He was a baby! A baby with a mullet," she said of Jordan.
She said she took the concern to producer Tim Marx. A coordinator could not be brought in that late in the day, Osment said, but one was on set for the next few episodes, "since the relationship between them escalates."
"It made everything easier having one there. I think it's something that's really important," she said.
Osment said she did not know whether Jordan realized he could ask for a coordinator too. "Like, let's give him the option, too. Make him comfortable," she said. "And he's such a sweet kid, I think he would just eat his discomfort."
Director Alex Reid said the production "totally dropped the ball" by not having a coordinator present at first. The CBS show had no sex scenes, he said, so the kissing scenes did not prompt one. Reid recalled a photo of the pair between takes in a car, looking in opposite directions. "I showed it to Osment and she said, 'Yeah, that was so uncomfortable for both of us, because we didn't know each other,'" he said.
"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," Reid said, adding that the two "have a great chemistry now."
Co-creator Steve Molaro said Osment had "every right to ask" for a coordinator and that eventually "she was comfortable without one."
Osment joined the series at 30, per Page Six, playing Mandy McAllister, an older weather forecaster who enters an unexpected relationship with Jordan's character, George "Georgie" Cooper Jr. Sheldon ran for seven seasons, from September 2017 to May 2024. The pair's storyline led to a spinoff, Georgie & McAllister's First Marriage.