Mayim Bialik Opens Up About Her Latest Project, the Documentary “Mom & Dad's Nipple Factory ”(Exclusive)

The actress and executive producer says director Justin Johnson's new documentary is a sweet nod to "people who do things differently and still love very deeply"

According to Mayim Bialik, Blossom, the NBC sitcom in which she starred from 1990 to 1995, was likely one of the many TV shows that filmmaker Justin Johnson and his four siblings were not allowed to watch growing up.

“They were a family with a lot of rules about what they were allowed to watch,” Bialik tells PEOPLE. “I think they weren’t allowed to watch Blossom because we dealt with topics like safe sex.”

Flash forward a few decades and the 48-year-old actress is now an executive producer on Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory, Johnson’s new documentary about the semi-secret business his conservative Christian parents have run for years out of their Eau Claire, Wisconsin, home, making custom prosthetic nipples for breast cancer survivors.

“It’s a rom-com about nipples, is what we kind of jokingly call it,” Bialik says.

Centered on Johnson’s deeply religious parents — Brian, a taciturn former computer engineer and part-time teacher with an entrepreneurial spirit, and Randi, an effervescent, outgoing former hippie and nurse — the lovingly crafted, and at times quite funny, film tracks the couple’s love story through Randi’s 2007 breast cancer diagnosis. Following a unilateral mastectomy and breast reconstruction, the couple discovered the shockingly limited options for nipple reconstruction.

“In many cases, if the nipple can’t be spared — which in many cases it cannot be — a lot of times women are kind of just told, ‘At least you’re alive. Go on your merry way,’ ” Bialik explains. “And of course there’s a gratitude in surviving this aspect of breast cancer. But it’s also not too much to ask, you know, that you feel a sense of cohesion and dignity in your body, and attractiveness.”

Faced with that challenge, Brian did what he has always done: he found a solution, and the innovative technique he developed to create highly individuated prosthetic nipples not only restored Randi’s sense of herself, it also grew into a thriving business.

“It really is a mom-and-pop business and the one-on-one care that they provide is something that you also learn about in the film and how much it means to them,” Bialik explains. Some of the most moving moments in the film come in interviews with the women whose lives have been changed by the Johnsons’ products.

Related: Mayim Bialik Sheds a Tear While Surprising Her 'Incredible' Friend of 18 Years with a Backyard Makeover (Exclusive)

After operating largely under the radar for years, Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory is, in a sense, Brian and Randi’s coming out story, as the couple’s children and members of their community, including their pastor, learn about, discuss and in some cases come to terms with their nipple-making business.

“It was kind of exciting to see people’s minds expanded because of this,” Bialik says of the film. “I’d like to believe that that’s how change happens. It happens incrementally.”

The actress, who earned a Doctor of Philosophy in neuroscience in 2007 and is a certified lactation consultant, says that Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory is a prime example of the sort of work she wants to be involved with, both as a performer and with her production company, Sad Clown Productions.

“I’m interested in telling stories that often aren’t told or that aren’t often told the way that we’re seeing them told,” she explains. “I really do believe in people surpassing political or religious or social norms and being able to find what unites us. I’m a real lover of humanity, and people can be complicated, but I think this is the kind of story that feels like we’re really elevating an aspect of the human experience that we often don’t see.”

Related: Mayim Bialik Shares Why It's Okay as a Parent to Tell Kids 'I Don't Have All the Answers'

As a person of faith herself, Bialik says she also responded strongly to director Justin Johnson’s story of pulling away from his conservative family only to find common ground with them years later in life.

“That’s also part the story: how he easily could have been the black sheep of the family when he was sort of exploring his independence and moved to New York. The notion of understanding his family on a deeper level allowed them to understand him more. And it’s kind of sweet,” she says. “Even though he still is very different from his parents and does not consider himself part of the faith as it were, there are still things that unite us.”

Fans of Bialik’s Emmy-nominated role on The Big Bang Theory may also see something of an echo of her character, Amy Farrah Fowler, and Jim Parsons’s Sheldon Cooper in Randi and Brian Johnson.

“Yes, Brian’s got a bit of a Sheldon vibe, I think,” Bialik agrees. “I think that also really did appeal to me. I’m a person who on The Big Bang Theory revolved in circles about unusual people and interesting people and people who did things differently.”

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“I can’t say it didn’t occur to me that we have this character in this documentary who really does things very, very differently,” she adds. “He thinks differently, he socializes differently, and some people have said they think they hear him speak more in this film than in knowing him in 50 years of friendship. So, there’s some very sweet nods to people who do things differently and still love very deeply.”

Mom & Dad's Nipple Factory begins a limited theatrical run on Sept. 6 before arriving on VOD Sept. 10.

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