--- title: 10 Questions for Actor Jim Parsons | TIME description: The Emmy Award-winning star of CBS's The Big Bang Theory will now take your questions. canonical: https://time.com/video/JCqWVw6O/ og:title: 10 Questions for Actor Jim Parsons og:description: The Emmy Award-winning star of CBS's The Big Bang Theory will now take your questions. og:url: https://time.com/video/JCqWVw6O/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/JCqWVw6O/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Questions for Actor Jim Parsons twitter:description: The Emmy Award-winning star of CBS's The Big Bang Theory will now take your questions. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/JCqWVw6O/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 10 Questions for Actor Jim Parsons > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 10 Questions for Actor Jim Parsons [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Actor Jim Parsons](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JCqWVw6O.m3u8) (6:38)  _Published 2011-02-11. The Emmy Award-winning star of CBS's The Big Bang Theory will now take your questions._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:09 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [The Success of 'The Big Bang Theory': By the Numbers](/video/xQk8EV2y/) ### The Success of 'The Big Bang Theory': By the Numbers [10 Questions for William Shatner](/video/dIEWN1k0/) ### 10 Questions for William Shatner [10 Questions for Jim Cramer](/video/aXcY60KF/) ### 10 Questions for Jim Cramer --- ## Transcript >> I took the liberty of adapting a Star Trek fan fiction novella I wrote when I was 10 into a one- act play. >> And you think it's better than Tennessee Williams? >> Why don't we leave that for future generations to decide? >> I'm Ari Karpel with TIME. Today, I'm on the set of the Big Bang Theory with Jim Parsons. He has won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for playing physicist Sheldon Cooper. Jim thanks so much for letting us come to the set of your show. >> Thank you for coming to my home away from home. >> So our first question comes from Julia Hall from Madera, California. How do you manage to make a character who could be easily unlikable, likable? >> I think in the writing, they're very careful to soften the edges of the harsher words coming out of his mouth. But, you know, the other thing is the way the other characters are reacting to him. >> Well, Mrs. Latham said she was seriously considering donating money so we could get a cryogenic centrifugal pump. >> Oh wow! >> Then she stuck her tongue down my throat. >> Why? >> Okay. We can't keep explaining everything. Read that book we got you. >> They show you how it's affecting them and it's much more, it's just exasperation and a certain resignation that we're going to put up with it and I think that translates to the audience like, oh, well they're saying it's okay. It's tiresome but it's not hurtful. We don't wanna ditch him. But frankly a lot of the times, structurally speaking for the scene, the point is to irritate, you know. I'm irritated sometimes learning the lines. So I just translate that onto the screen. >> And you do it well. >> Thank you. >> A reader in Berlin asks: Do you worry about being typecast as a Sheldon? >> No. I don't worry about being typecast. It already happens to a certain degree and so all I can do is keep working. All I can do is keep auditioning. All I can do is keep you know, getting into rooms and talking to people and I love playing this part and I don't feel that, you know, I don't approach this part any differently than I would have ever approached any other part as far as trying to bring it to life if you will, if that doesn't sound too arty sounding. I'm very frank you know, about certain things like, I get asked a lot of, of course science things, and like are you kidding? You know, and even the pop culture like, I'm very forthcoming, I've never seen Star Trek. I have never, I don't know Dr. Who. >> A reader from Ohio asks: Has your portrayal of a physicist changed how you regard science? >> I've always been fascinated with science and very specifically what I mean is I was very fascinated with meteorology at an early age. I lived on the Gulf Coast and hurricanes blew through there and I found that very interesting. The one thing that did change and surprised me, although why should it, was what a wonderful basis for a show, as it has been, to be built around because it's boundless. Anything, literally in the world can be tied into this show and we can-- we have a built- in I guess excuse for why it's here. So there is a lot of colors on that pallet to deal with. That's why there should be scientists, science is everything, you know. But I'm not watching more nova. >> And Dennis Cross from Dixon, Missouri wants to know: How did you lose your Texas twang? >> Well, I didn't lose my Texas twang completely. I know on the show it comes out sometimes and sometimes I'm given free rein when there is a Texas conversation going on, you know, and I can only imagine that's where they got that from, " Oh Sheldon's from Texas ." They got to do something with his dialect. >> Can you turn it and off at will? >> To a degree, it would take more, like, can I try and do Southern right now, in Southern and like when I'm talking to my mom on the phone and everything, that what it is, it's sort of a drawl in it and what have you and I don't know if this is exactly right or not. Now I'm thinking about it, it reminds me of that commercial on TV which goes, there's a pothole and she's talking and she goes, Oh! did I do that? So I turn something on, but I'm not sure if it was a Texas accent. >> I think you're getting there. You've done a lot of acting on the stage as we've talked about. Is that your first love? >> Yes and I would love nothing more and I'm actively trying to see a way to get back the right fit, the right situation to do a New York play. That being said, part of it was just happenstance and that I wasn't doing anything in front of a camera. You know, within early, theater was the thing, my only outlet for whatever this desire was on my part. I didn't know camera work. Although when I was very little I used to say I wanted to be a movie star again and again and that's not what I meant, you know. I just wanted to act and I guess in other words actor. >> Final question comes from me. I wanna know, Sheldon has a catchword and I'm curious if the first it was on a script, whether you knew it was gonna be a catchword or it just sort of evolved that way. >> Bazinga. >> I didn't know it would be-- we would ever see it again. It was-- I don't even-- I don't remember the actual script. It was at least two seasons ago now and they'll bandy about certain things. The writers will, while you're standing there, and Lee Aronsohn was the one who was just trying to find something for me to say at the end of whatever it was and Bazinga was his thing. It was like, that's just ridiculous enough let's do it and I love it. I think it's such a unique word I just find it irresistible which is probably why it became more of, kind of a catch phrase, you know. I would've never thought I wanted to be associated with a catch phrase and perhaps I shouldn't but-- but there's something-- there's something very forgiving about this one. >> Maybe it secures your place in TV history? >> I hope so. Bazinga. >> Thanks Jim. >> Thank you very much. >> It's so nice to see you. >> It was good to see you, too. >> Thanks for visiting. >> Sure. Thanks for having us. >> Bazinga. Bazinga. Bazinga. Bazinga. 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