We’re going to go on record right now and say that Jim Parsons got the shaft at this year’s Emmy Awards.
Not that Alec Baldwin isn’t great as Jack Donaghy on “30 Rock,” but in the end, he’s just another guy in a suit. As Dr. Sheldon Cooper, however, Parsons has taken a character that could’ve been just another comic book nerd and transformed him into a comedic force to be reckoned with, and he and his co-stars – Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar – have made “The Big Bang Theory” one of the funniest shows on television. I chatted with Parsons back in 2008, then crossed paths with him again this summer during the Television Critics Association Awards and floated the idea of doing a phoner once Season Three of “The Big Bang Theory” had kicked off in earnest, which he assured me would be no problem whatsoever. Still, when the time came to set up the interview, I decided to refresh Parsons’ memory of the evening by sending him a picture from that night. Fortunately, it worked like a charm.
Here are a few pull quotes from the piece:
* On bringing guest stars to “The Big Bang Theory”: “It’s fun to inject new life into this show, anyway, but when you’re able to get someone who is so talented as an actor in general, it’s not only a coup for the show and the audience members, but for you as an actor, to get to work with them. It’s always a different dance when strong actors come in like that, because they bring their own thing, and you’re, like, ‘Wooooooo!’”
* “(Wil Wheaton) was so fun to have on the set, and he was such a good guy, just in general. He seemed to be completely okay with the fact that his entire name became a mantra of vengeful hate. That didn’t seem to bother him.”
* On the Leonard / Penny relationship: “I really like that they decided to play this kind of true to life. Two friends get together, and you’re, like, ‘Oh, that’s not going to work,’ but then six months into it, one Friday night, you suddenly go, ‘Oh, my God, I’m completely used to them being together! I’m still not sure that it’s going to last, but I’m not thinking about it anymore.’”
* “Looking at Sheldon’s sexuality is like trying to read into a Rothko painting. It’s just, like, ‘Do I see a line?’ ‘No.’ ‘No? Well, I see something…’”
* On the idea of Sheldon falling in love: “What a special person it would take to devote themselves to Sheldon, and to accept him for what he was. Not that he’s a leper or something, but he can be so trying to deal with, and if you were his intimate other, oh, my God, would you have to listen to more workings of his even deeper inner mind? Good criminey!”
Interested…? Check out the interview by clicking here…or, y’know, on that big-arse graphic above. Either one will do the trick.
