Inside Simon Helberg And Jason Ritter's Friendship
Hollywood has a number of film duos who are best friends in real life — and Jason Ritter and Simon Helberg just so happen to make that list.
Ritter previously acted alongside Helberg in the "Florence Foster Jenkins" actor's first directing project, "We'll Never Have Paris" (via Deadline). The two worked together once again on 2014's "I Am I," written and directed by Helberg's wife, Jocelyn Towne. During press for the latter film, Ritter mentioned his years-long friendship with both Helberg and Towne, though he was quick to point out that their friendships didn't make signing on to the projects an easy call. In fact, if anything, he was downright anxious after agreeing to look at the script for "I Am I." Speaking to Collider, the "Joan of Arcadia" alum admitted, "I was a little nervous, just because of how close we all are. There was a part of me that was like, 'Oh, gosh, I'm gonna end up doing this anyway, even if I hate it.'" Luckily, for everyone involved, Ritter didn't hate it. Far from it, he fell in love with the script, and the rest is history.
Another thing firmly etched in history, though, is Ritter's longtime friendship with Helberg. So, what more do we know about their bond?
Simon Helberg and Jason Ritter have been friends since they were 12
Jason Ritter and Simon Helberg go way, way back. In fact, as Ritter told Collider, their friendship dates back to when they were just 12. However, in addition to hitting it off as youngsters, the "Frozen II" voice actor has a super sweet reason for maintaining his friendship with Helberg over the years. That is, he was his first high school friend.
In 2014, Ritter opened up about his high school experience on HuffPost's contributor platform. "There was a lot of seventh grade just walking around saying to myself, 'That's cool, I don't need friends,'" he wrote. Everything changed, though, when he saw Helberg and his squad. "They seemed to have stepped out of the whole hierarchy of high school. They didn't care. You can think we're dorks or you can think we're cool. It doesn't matter," the actor continued. Soon, Ritter set out to impress the group — and his attempts paid off. "I remember one day, during lunch time ... we had all been hanging out and laughing. I got my lunch and started heading off and Simon said, 'Hey man, where are you eating? You should eat lunch with us,'" he reminisced.
From that moment on, Helberg and Ritter have had each other's backs, from high school to Hollywood.
As college roommates, Simon Helberg loved pranking Jason Ritter
Simon Helberg may have been the first person to welcome Jason Ritter in high school, but that's not to say he never engaged in any playful teasing of his longtime pal. In fact, as Ritter joked on an episode of "Conan," the "The Big Bang Theory" star quickly learned that daring Ritter to do something was the quickest way to get what he wanted ... and he used it to his advantage when they were college roommates.
"If he wanted something, he would just go, 'Hey, I bet you can't make it all the way to the vending machine and back in two minutes, with a Coke for me,'" Ritter recounted. Naturally, the simultaneously unsuspecting and hyper-competitive Ritter would do everything in his power to acquire said Coke in as short a time as possible, only to realize that he'd been played. "I'd get back, 'Boom! Did I make it?' And he'd go, 'Ah, I wasn't really timing, but thanks!'" the actor laughed.
Given that Ritter has since gone on to work with Helberg numerous times — and even told We Got This Covered that both Helberg and his wife Jocelyn Towne "will continue to be close to me for the rest of my life" — it's clear he took the pranks in stride and their bromance has never waned. That's just as well, because we're loving this longtime duo!