Simon Helberg: from Big Bang nerd to Meryl Streeps cartoonish pianist

Other parts, he says, have been harder to secure; hence him writing his own. How much Howard Wolowitz, the tight-fitting geek with whom he is for everyone under 30 now inextricably associated, will dominate his career is yet to be seen. Might he be The Big Bang Theorys Courteney Cox, failing to fully emerge from its shadow, or its Jennifer Aniston, enjoying A-list status ever since?

So far, the shows legacy has been to make him a stern defender of populist entertainment in the face of what he sees as an upsurge in haughtiness a very Florence calling, that. Added to which, he is a megastar to millennials, who must navigate false flattery in a way Florence failed to do. It becomes addictive and toxic. It throws the axis off.

It has also made him the target of the sort of remorseless online abuse that means a phenomenon such as Florence would be impossible today. These days, he is dormant on Twitter because it triggered too much, made him feel like he was back in high school, too much of an open wound, at the mercy of those who get off on the power of being able to affect someone who seems impenetrable. They put celebrity on a pedestal and all of a sudden they have access to you thats a confusing thing.

He perches further forward on the couch. He and his wife like it here, and in France, he says, because people dont start by asking your occupation. In America, the first thing people say is: What do you do? Here it seems sort of rude. Its the question that allows someone to define you and know your wealth status and, therefore, level of import.

Social media is the same: its self-definition, virtual validation, constant bean-counting of your own worth. How many likes did I get for that video of my dog? Three?! Its the cutest thing hes ever done! So nobody gives a fuck about my dog. Ill have to put it to sleep.

Small wonder Helberg is evangelical about a time when the etiquette was tobe polite about performing animals, no matter how mediocre their tricks. Small wonder he so adores a woman who barely cared.

Florence Foster Jenkins is released in the UK on 6 May and in the US on 31 August.