‘Speechless’ Star John Ross Bowie Shares How He Got Into Acting

John Ross Bowie was a late bloomer to acting.

In a recent interview with TV Insider, the 46-year-old actor revealed that he didn’t start to pursue acting seriously until his late 20s. “I was working in an office and realized that I was the funniest guy there,” Bowie said of the time he decided to take acting more seriously. “That is when I started taking classes in New York, and I got pretty lucky pretty fast.”

Bowie, who currently stars as Jimmy DiMeo on ABC’s “Speechless,” said that he didn’t pursue acting at an earlier age because the unstable nature of the job scared him. “You meet a lot of your parents’ friends who are actors who are really struggling or you meet child actors who are being driven crazy by the demands on their time,” Bowie told Parade last December. “So, I got kind of spooked by the whole thing and decided I was going to study to be a teacher instead.”

After earning a degree in English and education, Bowie worked as a high school teacher for one year. While teaching is a noble profession, the New York native said that it broke him “like a twig.” After quitting teaching, Bowie played in a band, worked for a pharmaceutical company, and eventually began breaking into commercials. “Commercials led to TV, and TV led to movies here and there,” Bowie said. “I have somehow managed to make my living as an actor for something like 15 years now.”

While Bowie has been able to land role after role, the actor said that he tends to get his biggest roles at the last minute. “I booked ‘The Big Bang Theory’ the night before it started [filming],” said Bowie, who played the role of Barry Kripke on the CBS comedy. “I [also] booked ‘Speechless’ the night before it started [filming].”

Bowie revealed to AfterBuzz TV last May that he wasn’t the first choice for the role of Jimmy. “Around February [2016], I started hearing this show about a family who got a kid in a wheelchair. And it doesn’t sound it’s gonna be very good,” Bowie shared. “Then I heard that Scott Silveri was doing it. I’d read for Scott for a couple of other things in the past. I always like his writing. He’s really a good joke writer. … So I auditioned.”

Bowie continued, “I read and I guess it goes well. And they were like, ‘Okay great! Thank you, John.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay guys, good luck with whatever movie star you’re taking into doing television.’ And I headed out and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, they really liked you … they have a pin in you,’ which … means basically that if you get another job they would appreciate you telling them about it but you don’t have their job so I have a pin in me. I’m like, ‘Okay that’s fine.’”

The following month, the show cast Minnie Driver as Jimmy’s wife, Maya, and Bowie was called in to have a chemistry read with the actress. “It really went well,” Bowie said of the chemistry read. “We had a really easy chemistry, and we were cracking each other up. [But] I got the call later that evening that they were going to try to make it with a bigger name. But they said, ‘Stick around. You still have a pin in you.’”

“I know the guy, he’s a great guy,” Bowie said of the bigger star they considered for the role of Jimmy. “But he just couldn’t make a schedule work and they just panicked, and the night before the table read, I got the job.”

“Speechless” airs Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. EST on ABC.