July 2010 By Philip Berk
An unexpected e-mail followed a Hollywood Foreign Press conference.
It was from Jim Parsons the irrepressible star of The Big Bang Theory.
It read
“Hello. Jim Parsons here – I got your e-mail address from Jillian, my publicist. I just wanted to thank you for having us over for the conference the other day and to tell you how nice it was to finally meet you: Jillian has always said how great you are, and that “one day” we’d meet. She was right, and I’m glad we did.”
A year later — two days after had won the Emmy — he met with us again (I had forgotten his e-mail because by now everyone was dazzled by his success.)
So what was that moment like when his name was called?
“The moment was really important but the moment before when they read the nominees out loud, I had a moment of clarity that turned out to be completely wrong. I really felt it wasn’t going to happen. And when LL Cool J appeared to recognize someone’s name, then for sure that’s not me. But then suddenly it was. So the moment? Wake me up, pinch me, no no no this is beyond that. It was truly almost drug like. I’m really confused. I’m talking too fast. But afterwards everybody said it was good so I celebrated till midnight.”
(Obviously he was still not over it two days later when this interview happened. )
What makes Sheldon so unique?
“Well he’s the headiest — literally stuck in his head — the least of the group into his own body. Penny is the most earthbound, Sheldon the most in the air. He’s completely absorbed in his own world and his own work and the least prepared to accommodate others. He says things other people would normal find rude, but for him it’s just a matter of not filtering your needs in.”
How is his mom doing? After the win, we understand, she was completely overcome.
“She’s healthy now. It was really sweet though, and it was funny. She was with my sister when they watched the show, and it makes sense in retrospect, but they had a very intense screaming session. They scared the crap out of my sister’s one year old baby, who thought something horrible had happened. My mother thought she was going to throw up, and there was part of me that was like, ‘You go girl.’ In a weird way I wish could have been there with them. It would have been really fun to split myself in two and watch it with them because no one’s been with you longer than your biological family, going through everything. My mother to a greater or lesser degree has been a beautiful byproduct of all this, the pleasure it’s given my mother and the people that come up to my mother. She tends to be a lot more sociable than I. She doesn’t freak out when people talk to her. She enjoys it, and I’m so happy it’s making her happy.”
How has Sheldon evolved particularly in his relationship with the opposite sex?
“He’s still unbendable in that ‘I don’t really accept certain things’ way. I don’t know if he’s aware of any effect she’s having on him. We did an episode where he did feel a certain amount of tormentedness about this relationship. He refuses to call her a girl friend. She is a girl. She is a friend, but not a girlfriend. There’s no touching. In fact there’s very little seeing each other, unless Penny encourages it. Just textings been fine with him.”