The actor, 53, said he got in his head about the work he was doing
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NEED TO KNOW
- Jim Parsons revealed he felt stressed and unhappy during his time on The Big Bang Theory despite its success
- Parsons admitted his obsessive work habits led to missing out on life and contributed to his unhappiness
- He reflected on the challenges of fame and evolving his relationship with his iconic role as Sheldon Cooper
Jim Parsons was at the height of his fame during The Big Bang Theory, but it came at a cost.
The 53-year-old actor reflected on his decades-long career and time on the hit sitcom during an interview on All Out with Jon Dean.
“I look back now and realize that there were many ways, at some of the best moments of my life, I was miserable,” he shared. “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,” he added. “Maybe to a degree that was true. I don’t know. I can’t say because that’s how I was.”
While his work as Sheldon Cooper won him numerous prestigious awards, the toll wasn’t worth it.
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“I wouldn’t do that again and for any amount of money … it was stressful and miserable at times. I made myself miserable,” he shared.
When host Jon Dean questioned if that was just because of his “work ethic,” Parsons noted that that was only part of it.
“It translated in part into a work ethic, but it was really just obsessive behavior basically,” he admitted. “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,” Parsons shared.
As a result, he missed “tons of life.”
When Dean asked if there would be a way for a young actor to “balance things out,” Parsons replied, “I don’t honestly know.”
“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,” he said.
While being recognized for the role “is not going away,” he is “changing my relationship to it.”
“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,” Parsons shared.
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He noted that, to him, fame was a “very odd psychological thing.”
“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 said.
“It is a weird feeling to know people know you when you walk into a room, but you don’t know them,” he added.
On top of that, he noted that it’s even weirder to think that most people only know him as a character he no longer plays and “haven’t for seven years now.”
Parsons played Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory from 2007 to 2019, garnering a Golden Globe Award and multiple Emmy awards. He now stars as Rose’s Mother on Broadway in Titanique.
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