If the cultural sphere of nerds had a governing body, there’s no doubting Dr. Sheldon Cooper would be on the board. Big Bang Theory’s most lovable geek, a socially acute genius with a killer t-shirt collection, has etched his way into our hearts, one comic book reference at a time, making him one of the decade’s breakout television characters – a weekly fixture on CBS’ hit show.
Techland talked to the man behind everyone’s favorite scientist, Emmy-award winning actor Jim Parsons, just in time for tonight’s season premiere.
The Big Bang Theory’s fourth season kicks off on CBS at 8 p.m.
Allie Townsend: Congratulations on the Emmy win. How did the moment feel?
Jim Parsons: Rather stunning, to be honest with you. This may sound silly, but I’ve gone through very few experiences in my life that feel as acutely on the precipice between reality and unreality and while logically, you know what’s going on, but the momentum of the moment and the adrenaline of your body really masks it in this shroud of dream. Never mind that it’s an experience unlike anything you’ve gone through. I would imagine even if you were Meryl Streep you would never fully get used to it. It was rather unreal. That being said, it was wonderful.
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AT: At the end of last season Sheldon goes on a date. Will we finally see him in a relationship with Amy?
JP: Sheldon has entered into a relationship in the most literal sense of the word in that he’s relating on a regular basis to this other human being who happens to be female. We’ve done five episodes of the new season, and my mantra so far working on Sheldon’s lines has been, “She’s a girl. She’s a friend. But she’s not my girl friend.”
I tend to take Sheldon at his word because as an actor it tends to suit me best. Whatever Sheldon says he is, he is. I will say that this is one of those times though that he may be right. He may know himself better than anybody else, but I think there is an equal chance that it’s revealed that he’s been lying to himself. I do not say that with any sort of peek into any future script, I could be just as surprised as anyone else. It goes along with my belief that if romance or love or attraction were to happen to Sheldon, it would take him by surprise, but more than that, I don’t think he’d know what it was at first. That would be one of the few things that I think could knock him over and make him unsure of his balance.
AT: Why do you think Sheldon is portrayed as largely asexual so far on the show?
JP: From the very beginning, Sheldon’s job in this show is to go, “Why explore? We’re fine the way we are.” He doesn’t see the benefit of it, in fact he sees the exact opposite. You’d never be able to have the Penny and Sheldon relationship if he was more sexually threatening to her. It opened us to this brother-sister combativeness and helpfulness, but the bottom line is that there is sort of a yin and yang to them and I think if sex was in the way it would be a very different relationship, more like the relationship between her and Leonard.
AT: Will we ever see Penny and Sheldon have a romantic moment or two?
JP: It sure seems unlikely to me. I would never put anything past our writers, but I really never thought we would even be discussing a real occurrence on the show that would lead us to ask if he was in a relationship. I thought it was never going to happen, or it was many years off. “What’ll we do in season 10?”
I wouldn’t put anything past the writers. As soon as you build up a barrier in your head that thinks they’ll never go there, they go ahead and go there. They put Leonard and Penny together. I guess anything’s possible, but it does seem to me that it’s much more sibling in nature. I would doubt it, but who knows, maybe there’s a kiss in their future, but it seems so unlikely.
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AT: I’ve heard you say that you think Sheldon is a virgin. With everything that’s happened on the show since, do you still think that might be true?
JP: I don’t know. I’ll say that I don’t remember saying that, so I’ve evolved at least as much in my thinking to not be able to identify with that comment anymore, but I don’t know. That’s a really hard call. I would think yes, but I can almost feel one of the writers slapping me for my judgment, so I really don’t know. Wouldn’t your guess be yes? I mean, come on.
AT: My intuition says yes. He seems so, not even inexperienced, but just disinterested.
JP: Disinterested! That’s exactly the word for it. Again, anything can happen and maybe one day we can explore some kind of emotional fear based thing he has against it, but it doesn’t come off that way. It really does come off as disinterested or – I don’t want to use the word icky – but aside from disinterest, just down right unsanitary in his eyes. Leave it to the lab.
AT: Have you ever known anyone like Sheldon?
JP: I haven’t. But what’s funny is that not only am I approached by people who know people like Sheldon, but my mother is a schoolteacher and she’s had countless people that have given her stories of kids who are very Sheldon-esque. Not even Sheldon-esque, just dead on.
From the beginning I was asked if Sheldon has Asperger’s and I went to the writers and they said, “Nope. He doesn’t.” I didn’t know a lot about Asperger’s back then, and I’ve since read some, enough to know more about the behavior of Asperger’s, and there’s Sheldon all over the place in that.
I think it was very smart of the writers to borrow a lot of those behaviors without nailing us down with some extra social responsibility to get this story right. It’s more of a celebration of these kinds of characteristics and the fun, colorful side they offer. It’s been such a joyful experience to behave as somebody that I don’t know and talk to people in such a way that I don’t. In the end, it’s probably some kind of weird therapy.
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AT: One of the great things about Sheldon is that he’s so unapologetic about who he is. Have you applied any of that to your own life?
JP: I want to say that I probably have in a subconscious way. I don’t doubt for a second that portraying this character who doesn’t apologize for what he is, who is so very certain that what he’s doing is right – I have no doubt that, at least on a subconscious level that has affected me. I hope it hasn’t made me a total tyrant to be around. I’d like to use those powers for good.
AT: Aside from his non-existent social skills, what about his interests can you relate to Sheldon’s nerdiness?
JP: I was very average in the social label scale going through school. I was neither the coolest person in school, nor did I suffer the slings and arrows of being made fun of to such a degree that I couldn’t get through the day. I had some trouble and I had some great moments. It was very in between.
I don’t feel like I’m bringing much of anything when it comes to personal experience with him. For one, he doesn’t talk about anything that I have second nature of. Not only do I not have my own language for science, but for comic books, graphic novels, most science fiction, after Star Wars. I think this has been to my benefit and allowed me to connect with him more on a humanistic level because I don’t really get what he’s talking about 90% of the time.
AT: What can we expect this season?
JP: The writers continue to surprise me. I feel like some of the things that have been written this year have been the funniest episodes we’ve done. I’ve always felt like the writers have been so creative with these genius characters and week in and week out they create these stories that are so fun to watch.
We never really know what’s coming before it’s right there. Sometimes they’ll ask you a question. The other day they asked me if I was allergic to cats so I knew cats were going to make an appearance at some point, but unless there’s a health risk involved they really don’t care if you know.