# Mary Cooper vs. Mary Cooper

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mary-cooper-vs-mary-cooper/814381>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 18, 2018, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mary-cooper-vs-mary-cooper/814381 "2018-05-18T00:48:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mary-cooper-vs-mary-cooper/814381/1 "2018-05-18T00:48:45Z")

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By that I mean Laurie Metcalf as Sheldon Cooper’s mother or Zoe Perry as Young Sheldon’s mother.

Use any criteria you want, but let’s please keep the thread responses not icky.

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mary-cooper-vs-mary-cooper/814381/2 "2018-05-18T00:51:51Z")

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I don’t think they could have found a better actor to play Mrs Cooper, minus 30 years. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Laurie could have done it, but they got really lucky with Zoe.

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**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mary-cooper-vs-mary-cooper/814381/3 "2018-05-18T00:54:37Z")

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I’d say they are equally good. I might give Laurie the edge as she is the one who originated the role. On the other hand, I might give Zoe the edge as she was able to duplicate it.

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**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mary-cooper-vs-mary-cooper/814381/4 "2018-05-18T01:05:36Z")

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In case folks are unaware, Zoe Perry is Laurie Metcalf’s daughter in real life.

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**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mary-cooper-vs-mary-cooper/814381/5 "2018-05-18T01:21:30Z")

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I think Zoe has more acting challenges, since she has latent emotions that we know that will later come out with Laurie. At times it seems that Laurie is portraying a stereotype (although she and Alfred left that dinner together…). Laurie seems meaner, but we know that Zoe is a repressed mean person, which is a harder act.

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**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mary-cooper-vs-mary-cooper/814381/6 "2018-05-18T12:58:05Z")

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Zoe Perry is the daughter of Laurie Metcalf, in case you were wondering why Zoe does such a fantastic job of portraying the character.

Source: [Zoe Perry - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Perry)