Emily Osment Demanded Intimacy Coordinator at 30 Over 18-Year-Old Co-Star

Emily Osment requested an intimacy coordinator on the set of "Young Sheldon" because a 12-year age gap with co-star Montana Jordan made her kissing scenes, in her words, uncomfortable. Jordan was 18. Osment was 30.

The disclosure comes from Jessica Radloff's new book, "Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw's-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy," which chronicles the making of the CBS series.

Osment played Mandy McAllister; Jordan played George Cooper. Their characters' relationship escalated across episodes, which is precisely what prompted Osment to act.

What did Osment actually say?

"That made me uncomfortable. He was a baby! A baby with a mullet," Osment said in the book. "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."

She added: "It made everything easier having one there. I think it's something that's really important."

Osment also raised a point the production had overlooked: her younger co-star may not have known he could ask for the same support.

"I don't know if Montana even knew if he could ask for that," she said. "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."

Did the show fail its actors?

Director Alex Reid admitted the production "totally dropped the ball" on the kissing scenes — but only because there were no sex scenes on the show, so no one thought an intimacy coordinator applied.

Reid described a photograph taken between takes of Osment and Jordan sitting in a car, looking off in opposite directions. "They're looking off in other directions," Reid said. "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 framed the discomfort as broader than the missing coordinator. "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," the director said. "Obviously they worked that out, and they have a great chemistry now, but that was kind of embarrassing."

Co-creator Steve Molaro acknowledged Osment had "every right to ask" for an intimacy coordinator, and noted that eventually "she was comfortable without one." The claim that the arrangement became unnecessary is worth registering, not accepting at face value: comfort on set, as Osment's own account shows, often arrives only after someone insists on it.

What changes for the franchise now?

The fictional couple now leads their own spinoff, "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage." Radloff's book reports that the network had initial concerns about building a relationship around so significant an age gap — concerns it evidently set aside once the pairing worked on screen.