Jim Parsons was 'miserable' during Big Bang Theory success and 'wouldn't do' show again
Jim Parsons received multiple awards for his performance as Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, which ran from 2007 until 2019.
Jim Parsons "wouldn't do" The Big Bang Theory again as it made him "miserable".
Although the 53-year-old actor's mental health stopped him from enjoying his success on the CBS sitcom, of which his performance as Sheldon Cooper bagged him multiple awards, Jim would not change a thing because the show opened doors for him.
Reflecting on The Big Bang Theory, the star said on the latest episode of All Out with Jon Dean podcast: "I look back now and realise that there were many ways, at some of the best moments in my life, I was miserable. I was not happy. I was stressed.
"I felt that there was so many plates I was supposed to be keeping in the air and that the success and the good things of life that were happening were only due to this overworking… discipline and whatever.
"Maybe, to a degree, that was true. I don’t know. I can’t say because that’s how I was."
The Big Bang Theory ran for 12 seasons from from 2007 until 2019, and it followed physicists Sheldon and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), whose lives were changed when waitress-and-aspiring actress Penny (Kaley Cuoco) moved into their apartment building, before she joined their social group, including Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar), Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), his wife Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz (Melissa Rauch), and Sheldon's spouse, Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik).
Despite Jim winning major accolades, including four Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe, for his work on the sitcom, the personal toll was not worth it.
He admitted: "I wouldn't do that again and for any amount of money ... it was stressful and miserable at times. I made myself miserable."
He added: "It translated in part into a work ethic, but it was really just obsessive behaviour basically.
"Yes, I was disciplined. Yes, I had a good work ethic, but a lot of it was because it was kind of OCD in nature. I had a list of things basically in my head that I had to get done in order to be comfortable and know that I could do my job right, which I don’t think was true."
Due to this, the entertainer missed out on "tons of life", but he would not change a thing because the show opened doors for him.
Jon wondered if a young actor could "balance things out" in some way, but Jim said: "I don't honestly know."
He added: "In the same way, I can't go back. I wouldn't be where I am right now if I hadn't had that time of life and that somewhat self-tortured nature was part of it."
Jim's knows he will always be associated with the role and is "changing my relationship to it".
He said: "It's evolving, and it gets better all the time. What I feel is better, what I feel is healthier. It's not something that I think probably anybody, but I was certainly not equipped to, looking back.
"How do you process what's happening as far as all these levels of this? And what class would you take or book would you read to prepare you for?"
Jim declared fame as a "very odd psychological thing", but insisted: "And this is not a complaint. This is just me having the grace to myself to admit it and look at it cleanly or as clearly as I can."
He added: "It is a weird feeling to know people know you when you walk into a room, but you don't know them.
"And it's an even weirder feeling when, if I think about it, to go, oh, and most of them only know me as a character that I no longer even play anymore and haven't for seven years now."
