'Big Bang Theory' newbie Rati Gupta tells Mayim Bialik joining CBS hit was 'intimidating'

Once upon a time (eight seasons ago, to be precise), Mayim Bialik was the new kid among the cast of "The Big Bang Theory." So she's been in Rati Gupta's shoes – sort of. 

Although "Big Bang" was an established hit by the time the former "Blossom" actress first guest-starred at the end of Season 3 in May 2010, she has now been there for eight seasons of its 12-year run. (She and Melissa Rauch were both promoted to series regulars partway through Season 4.)

Gupta, by comparison, is coming in at the end, playing the fiancee of Kunal Nayyar's character, Raj Koothrappali, the last single member of the core group. Frustrated by his own futile attempts to find love, the biggest romantic on the show has agreed to an arranged marriage. 

The 34-year-old actress, who previously appeared in Hulu's "Future Man," talked about what it's been like joining the show for Bialik's Grok Nation blog. She told her co-star it was "intimidating" to sign on for the hit series. 

"It felt like transferring schools late into senior year," Gupta confessed to Bialik. However, she added, "I will say the one cool and calming thing about joining a show after it’s been going for so long is that it’s such a well-oiled machine that I always know where I need to be, what I need to do."

Gupta told her co-star she had no idea what the writers had planned for her when she was cast a week before the news broke that Season 12 would be the show's last. And she remains uncertain about where the Anu character will go.

Once that she found out the show was ending, she said, "my feelings about how big a deal it was going to be to be on this show rose about a hundred times more!" 

Gupta added she can relate to the plot line her character is facing. She is familiar with arranged marriages since her parents had one.

"I definitely have experience in the subject matter, so it’s not a stretch for me to understand this character and her choices. There’s a line in one of the earlier episodes where she says, 'My parents were arranged, and they are very happy.' That’s a very easy line to deliver because it’s true!"

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