McKenna Grace Says ‘Conflict’ Kept Her Off ‘Young Sheldon’ — ‘I’ve Never Talked About This’

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McKenna Grace has finally spoken about the reason why her character never returned to “Young Sheldon.” Grace, 20, played Paige Swanson on the hit CBS sitcom. Her character was a recurring role, appearing primarily as a foil to the titular protagonist. However, Paige became a fan favorite, especially for how her genius mentality clashed with her desire to be a normal teenager.

Despite “Young Sheldon” setting Grace up for a proper conclusion for her arc, the character was never seen again after the sixth season. Many fans assumed it was due to Grace’s status as a rising star in Hollywood, but the actress has now opened up about the exact circumstances.

McKenna Grace Says Clashes With A Film Role Caused ‘Conflict’ With ‘Young Sheldon’

McKenna Grace talked about the show in Jessica Radloff’s new book, “Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw’s-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy.” In her interview, the 20-year-old revealed that a clash arose with a film she was meant to do. The scheduling issues led to Grace dropping out of the movie.

The actress claims that she was only required to do one day of filming for “Young Sheldon.” However, the “ordeal” the situation became led to Grace being forced to let the film project go. According to her, the movie required shooting for two days, yet the “Young Sheldon” one-day filming resulted in the loss of that opportunity.

Although Grace maintains there is “no bad blood” between her and the “Young Sheldon” showrunners, she feels the “conflict” had its repercussions. The actress said she’s “never talked about this,” but she has wondered if the “complicated” issue led to her character being written out altogether.

“I really enjoyed my time working on Young Sheldon, and I had this one annoyingly complicated situation that I think resulted, possibly, in me not coming back,” she told Radloff. “I always did what I could schedule-wise to make Young Sheldon work, but it’s always hard with those things and when teams [are involved].”

‘Young Sheldon’ Showrunner Contends McKenna Grace’s Perspective But Admits To ‘Heated Phone Calls’

It’s important to remember that “Young Sheldon” showrunner Steve Holland has offered his own perspective in the same book. While he acknowledges that things weren’t great with McKenna Grace’s agents, Holland says the actress wouldn’t have missed just one day of shooting.

Holland says that Grace’s absence would have led to the entire structure of the episode collapsing. He claims that the team even reached out to the film production to try and work something out, but the dates were ultimately “immovable.”

The “Young Sheldon” showrunner did admit that things became “a little messy” with agents. However, he maintained that it had nothing to do with Grace personally. According to Holland, though, the actress’s rising status was also a reason why she wasn’t brought back for the final season.

“There were some heated phone calls with agents, but that has nothing to do with Mckenna; that’s just the business part of the business,” Holland told Radloff. “But the fact that she was becoming such an in-demand actress did make her availability an issue in our final season.”