Penny and Sheldon

Blonde, but no bimbo by May Seah

Kaley Cuoco may be the blonde bombshell of the average geek's dreams — especially after gracing the cover of Maxim last month.

But even though "dumb blonde" roles like the one she played in 8 Simple Rules and the one she currently plays in The Big Bang Theory associate her with that stereotype, Cuoco is no vapid Hollywood starlet.

On the geek-themed sitcom, her character, Penny, a buxom blonde waitress with dreams of making it big as a Hollywood actress, contrasts with the quartet of socially-awkward nerds next door.

Although Cuoco is living her character's dream, the 24-year-old proclaimed that she'd rather shovel horse manure than get caught up in the empty glitz of Hollywood.

Well, not in so many words, but horses were definitely involved.

"Someone might be looking at me and I'm thinking I have something on my face," said Cuoco to prove the point that fame wasn't something that concerned her at all. Her real life is spent on a ranch outside of Hollywood.

"I don't think about the show - the minute I leave the set, it's a completely different lifestyle. I get home and it's like, 'Are you going to help me with the dishes?' I have three horses and four dogs. I'm very involved in the animal world, so that's what keeps me grounded. I show horses. That's my favourite part of my life."

Really? Not the glamour of stardom and her adoring masses?

"This is not a real life. This is a weird little world," she proclaimed. "If I didn't have animals ... You get so sucked in and become obsessed with what you're doing, you don't appreciate it any more."

If you're wondering how she can be so blase about it, seeing as she got her start in showbiz at the ripe old age of six, Cuoco shared that unlike Penny, becoming an actress was never a lifelong dream - it was just something she felt comfortable doing.

"It's just another part of life," she shrugged.

"The minute you start taking it too seriously is the minute no one wants to hear what you're doing any more. Who wants to hear about your craft? It's boring. No one cares. It's stupid! I've never been in an acting class in my life. I'd rather kill myself. I don't want to learn about acting. It just is what it is."

Okay ... But mouthing off like that could be dangerous for her career, couldn't it?

"Oh yeah, I've gotten into trouble a couple of times," Cuoco said, smiling. "I've said certain things. But I don't care. Someone's always going to make a dumber remark than you did."

Is there a good part to being famous and successful, then?

Laughing, Cuoco replied: "It gives me an opportunity to have all those animals! You know how expensive it is to have these frickin' horses hanging around?"

Emmy-nominated actor Jim Parsons' acting roots start in Houston by Andrew Dansby

BURBANK, CALIF. — The cameras aren't rolling on the set of TV's The Big Bang Theory. Actor Jim Parsons sits on a couch, in his character Sheldon Cooper's spot, lost in thought.

This day has entailed mostly rehearsals and camera set-ups for the season's third episode. The pace has been impressive: a bar scene, followed by a kitchen scene, followed by a couch scene as the production moves from one set to another. Big Bang's apartment building on the Warner Bros. lot seems Picasso-esque, with the cubed sets lined up one next to another rather than laid out as they'd be in a real structure. Parsons is thinking over a tweak to the script just suggested by series creator Chuck Lorre.

The show begins its third season with reason for enthusiasm. A few years after some thought the traditional sitcom was dying, The Big Bang Theory shows great promise. Its audience has grown over the past two years, and CBS has ordered not just a third but also a fourth season. The show now occupies a desirable time slot after hit comedy Two and a Half Men. And Parsons is also nominated for best comedy actor at tonight's Emmy show.

Parsons is part of a lovable ensemble that gives life to intriguing characters in a simple premise. He plays Sheldon Cooper, a physicist. He and his physicist roommate Leonard (Johnny Galecki) have a nerdy social circle that includes another physicist and an engineer. Comfort zones are nudged to different degrees when they become friends with Sheldon and Leonard's neighbor Penny, a waitress played by Kaley Cuoco.

Veteran director Mark Cendrowski keeps a loose set on Big Bang. Each scene is assigned a letter. When a scene is called for set up, crew members play a little game, shouting out 1980s music acts that start with that letter.

Scene A is called. ABBA is the first name shouted and gets a tepid response. Somebody tries Adam Ant and gets cheers. Cuoco tries Aerosmith, a sweet, funny choice in line with the fact she was born in 1985. Boos ensue from crew members who remember the '70s.

Amid the play, Parsons is figuring out some of the complex rhythms required of his character, who must rattle off line after line of tightly composed, rhythmic dialogue, and then do something with his face or body during the silence that follows. The night after these rehearsals, those silences will be filled with laughter from a studio audience.

"When he listens he's in character, when he walks he's in character, when he sits down he's in character," Lorre says. "It involves a great deal of thought. And his instincts are uncanny. You can't teach that. It's wonderful to be near it and watch it."

Later, when asked if he thinks acting was an inevitable thing for him to do, Parsons immediately answers, "Yes." He pauses a moment, as Sheldon might, but rather than waiting for laughter, he's composing a story. Parsons speaks fluidly like somebody who spends his time studying words, without fractured sentences.

He tells about how his mother kept a little scrapbook that listed things like his favorite colors and what he wanted to do when he grew up. "From a very early age, I said 'movie star,'" he says. "I couldn't have known what that meant, as far as fame — that didn't make sense to me. But I knew I wanted to act. There were brief bleeps like teacher and meteorologist, but (acting) was there from day one. Why? I have no idea. I was given plenty of attention as a child."

Parsons, 36, knew the role of Sheldon was a bazinga moment. He was living in New York, having established a strong theater background in Houston, where he was a founding member of the Infernal Bridegroom theater company as well as a Stages Repertory Theatre regular. In New York he found theater work and spot roles on TV, though the process was sometimes disappointing for the little-known actor: He'd audition for 15 to 30 pilots per season. Sometimes he'd not get the role, sometimes he would, then the show wouldn't get picked up.

Parsons was instantly drawn to the rhythms of Sheldon's speech. "I felt very strongly about the structure of it and the way they laid out the character and the way he talked," he says. "It was a one-in-a-million match."

Parsons' and Sheldon's pitch and cadences overlap a bit, but it's clear Parsons is embodying a character. That said, his transformation looks effortless. He chews up the bigger words and longer sentences, nearly singing them as Sheldon. But a physical aspect to his work suggests silent film stars like Buster Keaton. He does several takes of a slightly sinister Pavlovian scene involving Cuoco's character and chocolate. Each time he gently manipulates his slowly spreading Grinch-like grin to different effect.

Jason Nodler, the artistic director for Houston's The Catastrophic Theatre, was, like Parsons, a founding member of Infernal Bridegroom. Nodler, a fan of Big Bang Theory, says, "I recognize every move Jim makes on that show. It's just a natural part of his physical vocabulary. He's a naturally gifted physical comedian."

The show has five strong characters at its center, and their interaction is crucial to its success. But Parsons' work earned him the Emmy nomination.

He's quick to deflect credit. Of the physical aspect of his character, he says it was there from the pilot episode, when Penny sits in his spot on the couch. "It's like when he's searching for his seat, some of his lines will be his movement."

As for the chewy dialogue, he says, "I love having to ferret out that rhythm that's within there. But I wouldn't pat myself on the back too hard, the writers make it very evident.

"But it was really a thing that moved me, more than the story, when I read the pilot."

Parsons thinks his Houston background — the breadth and pace of his work here — is integral in his success.

It started poorly. After graduating from Klein Oak High School, Parsons attended University of Houston, where a classmate urged him to audition for a production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame. Parsons was deeply intrigued by the material, but says he wasn't quite comfortable with the work. He missed a few rehearsals and had a meeting with the director. "I just wasn't at peace with it," he says. "And it's no picnic putting Endgame on. It's a great joy, but also a little rough-edged."

Once the production was complete, though, he threw himself into acting, doing 17 plays in three years, everything from works by Bertolt Brecht to Guys and Dolls.

He recalls doing children's theater during the day, rehearsing during the afternoons and doing plays like Georg Büchner's murderous 19th-century play Woyzeck at night.

"I didn't have a life," he says. "I thought I did.

"But I had those opportunities at IBP and U of H. Houston was a great environment. Texas is a funny place in general. It's not even like two sides of a coin, it's more like a hexagonal Dungeons and Dragons die. People make a lot of assumptions about it, but it was fulfilling and nurturing to work there.

"There's no learning like the doing. When you're doing that many different types of things on that many types of stages, you don't know the effect it has while you're doing it. On one level, it made it hard to throw me. I've done it. I guess I haven't performed on a sinking Titanic ... but I'm young yet."

Nodler says much of the work they did together at IBP was "awfully dark."

"But there was always some comic element. Jim always did a beautiful job. Even when something was dark, he was always funny. He can't help but be funny."

Parsons left Houston in 1999, though he still gets back often to see friends and family. He attended grad school in San Diego and eventually moved to New York, where he quickly found work off Broadway.

There were small TV parts and also a well-known Quiznos commercial where — when asked if he were raised by wolves — he was nuzzling and suckling with some wolf pups.

Then came Sheldon.

Lorre knew Parsons understood the character on his first audition. "We knew we were witnessing something astonishing," he says. Lorre was so impressed he asked Parsons to return to make sure his audition wasn't a fluke.

"He's a force of nature. He really is that good."

Acting can be an art, but, not surprisingly for a guy who plays a physicist, Parsons sees the math in it.

"Muddied comedy isn't comedy," he says. "Well, that may not be true for all comedy, but overall I feel there's this tremendous amount of precise work that goes into lining all the pieces so you can have what appears to be the chaos of it. To put it in the basest terms, you can't really fall down. You have to plan for it."

On the surface, Big Bang Theory is a traditional sitcom. It has multiple cameras. It's written with breaks for the audience's laughter.

But it's a different traditional sitcom, which has likely endeared it to its viewers. The science squad possesses greater numerical aptitude than your average viewer, but their interactions — immediate and their code-like subtexts — all ring true, like a geeky variation of Rock Paper Scissors that includes lizards and Spock (who gets disproved by paper).

Sometimes Sheldon's jokes are full of heady language written with rhythm and purpose.

"I'm a Sagittarius, which probably tells you way more than you need to know," Penny says in one episode.

"Yes," Sheldon replies. "It tells us that you participate in the mass cultural delusion that the sun's apparent position relative to arbitrarily defined constellations at the time of your birth somehow affects your personality."

Other times the lines are more efficient. When he asks what to order in a restaurant he gets a cliche in response. Everything's good. "Statistically unlikely," he quips.

Parsons points out that when studying theater, people are taught that theatrical events come about from ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

"This is the reverse," he says. "It's putting extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances."

Penny is a portal and also an agitator. Her interactions with Leonard feel familiar to anyone involved in a sort of young urban tribe. Outside relationships threaten its fabric.

Over two seasons the show courted a growing audience with its characters.

Parsons, in particular, has drawn much attention. Last month he won a comedy award from the Television Critics Association, which also honored the show. At tonight's Emmys, Parsons and Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement are the newcomers in a best-actor field that includes Alec Baldwin, Tony Shalhoub, Steve Carell and Charlie Sheen.

Parsons talks about it with Sheldon's jittery manner, only the mix of excitement, restraint and wonder isn't in tune with his character's numerical precision.

"I still feel this certain sensation that it's happening to somebody else," he says. "But I'd be lying if I said it wasn't exciting. I'm already nervous about being there, which is goofy; there's not much expected of me. I just walk in and sit down. But there's no script available. Just to go there and be there."

He pauses a beat as Sheldon might.

"My mother was excited."

A conversation with Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory by David Martindale

Jim Parsons is quite convincing as a scientific genius in The Big Bang Theory. But in real life, he has no head for science. "It's just not the way my mind works," he says. There was, however, a brief time when Parsons, who plays brilliant yet socially inept Sheldon, was a wannabe meteorologist. "I was 10 and [the science of weather] just completely captivated me," he says. "I wanted to be an actor from a very early age, but meteorology was a two- or three-year blip on my radar." Alas, all remnants of that dream were shattered when the native Houstonian took a college meteorology course. "It's the only class I ever failed," Parsons laments. Acting was the right career path after all. On The Big Bang Theory (returning for a second season on CBS at 7 p.m. CT Monday, Sept. 22), it's a work of genius the way Parsons has taken an arrogant, emotionally distant brainiac and turned the character into an endearing fan favorite.

Given that it's not a knack for science that you share with Sheldon, can you single out some ways in which you ARE similar to your character?

I can compare myself to him in lots of little ways. Like, yes, I can be a little obsessive-compulsive about things like Sheldon. And yes, I can be set in my ways like Sheldon. One of the wonderful things when you do a show like this, as opposed to doing a play or a movie, is that you grow together. The writers are paying attention and they're always thinking, 'What comes naturally to him? What turn of phrase does he deliver really well?' So they start writing the character to fit me and, in the end, many of my traits become Sheldon's traits.

Such as the fact that Sheldon is from Texas?

They never told me specifically that he's from Texas because I'm from Texas. But I can't imagine that, from all the 50 states they had to choose from, they just came up with Texas coincidentally.

The difference from Sheldon on that front is that you're not ashamed of being a Texan, right?

Exactly. A lot of people say to me, 'You don't sound like you're from Texas.' But I think if you're around me enough, such as you would be on a day-to-day working basis, a lot of Southern qualities slip out. Like the word 'y'all.' I've never given it up. I've caught myself during auditions saying 'Thank, y'all' on the way out. But you know what? I'm not going to worry about changing. And I have no doubt that our writers pounced on that.

Was there a pivotal moment in your life that led you to become an actor? Or was it something you always wanted to do, as if acting was in your DNA?

It's chicken-or-the-egg, I guess. Part of me feels like it was just born there. But in first grade, I was cast in a play and they gave me a little solo part. I was a bird and I had a little song to sing. Maybe I would have found my way into acting without that. But there can be no doubt it was my first exposure to performing in front of an audience. And while I have no recollection of how I felt doing that play, it obviously made an impact on me. I'm just glad I found what I should be doing. We all know people who struggle to find what's right for them. At the risk of sounding like I'm on Oprah, I think the answer is within.

There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about the death of the sitcom. The dwindling number of sitcoms seems to support the theory that it's a vanishing TV art form. On the other hand, the success of The Big Bang Theory indicates there's still life in the classic format. Could it be that sitcoms aren't dead after all? Could it be merely that the bad, unfunny ones are dead?

I think you're absolutely right. I wish I was older and had more experience so I could I feel more sure about my statements on this topic. However, I've certainly watched enough TV over the years. The multi-camera sitcom, the one done in front of a studio audience, has been so popular for so long and been so successful. Success like that gets imitated and duplicated — and therefore the form gets diluted. It happens all over the place with any product. As a result, I think there has been a lot of not-as-well executed multi-camera shows shot in front of an audience. But I think the bottom line is this: If it's done well, if you've got good writing and good stories, if you've got good characters and if it's funny, especially if it's funny, people are going to enjoy watching it, no matter what the format is.

What's the highest praise you've ever received for The Big Bang Theory?

The height of TV compliments, I think, is when somebody says they like to eat dinner while watching our show. It doesn't get much better than that.

Chaos theory by Sarah Kuhn

As The Big Bang Theory's socially inept brainiac Sheldon Cooper, Jim Parsons is often called upon to spit out tongue-twisting mouthfuls of intricately crafted, physics-laced dialogue. That he does so and still manages to imbue it with meaning — and Sheldon's prickly, persnickety intentions — is nothing short of a science-defying miracle. "There's no way I'm going to ever be able to grasp most of these concepts," says Parsons, chuckling. "But the good thing is I don't really need the full concept, I just need the basics, so I can understand what point he's trying to make by bringing it up. Once I get just deep enough to connect, I go, 'I see.' Then I'm done."

Parsons' hilariously meticulous characterization helped make The Big Bang Theory a hit for CBS last season and has earned him many a glowing review. The show, which focuses on the exploits of Sheldon and equally geeky roommate Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), returns for a second season Sept. 22. Despite being conceived by sitcom mastermind Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men, Dharma & Greg), the show didn't always appear destined for success. Once Parsons landed the role, a pilot was shot but not picked up. After rewriting and cast changes, a new pilot was filmed, but there were months of waiting in between. Parsons was living in New York at the time and decided to take a gamble and relocate.

"I knew we were on hold to shoot it again; it was the craziest time, because you're in the very enviable position of knowing you have work coming up, but it was maddening at the same time," he says. "That waiting period was crazy. I decided that whatever happened, I would move. I thought, I've had a great time in New York, but a lot of my work's coming out of L.A. right now, and I think it would be smart to spend a few years out here and form some relationships. So I moved in March of last year, and in May the show got picked up." He pauses for a moment, then chuckles. "I think that's accidentally practicing the Secret, actually."

Parsons doesn't recall exactly when he was bitten by the acting bug, but he knows that it occurred fairly early in his childhood. "My mother had this list of questions you asked your child every year, and it was like, 'What's your favorite color? What's your favorite TV show?' and it says, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' " he remembers. "And from very early on, I started saying 'movie star,' which — now I look back and I have no idea what I thought. I didn't know what a celebrity was. But I guess, really, I just wanted to be an actor in some way."

He honed his craft at the Old Globe Theatre/University of San Diego, eventually earning a master's in acting. As part of the program, Parsons participated in a New York showcase that landed him several meetings with agencies, including Innovative Artists. He signed on and has been with the group ever since. "They always were very supportive and kept putting me out there for things — whatever form of belief or gamble that is, I don't know, but they kept sending me," he says with a laugh.

Over the years, he has appeared in a variety of stage productions (The Castle with the Manhattan Ensemble Theater, As You Like It at the Houston Shakespeare Festival) and TV shows (Judging Amy, Ed), but one standout role that still attracts attention is his brief but memorable turn as a Klingon-speaking, cereal-chomping Medieval Times "knight in training" in Zach Braff's Garden State. Parsons won the part after auditioning for another character with Garden State casting director Avy Kaufman. "I loved that [the scene] managed to walk that line of absurdity — it balanced it so well," he says. "Lucky Charms and a full suit of armor. That's incredible. You almost don't have to do very much in that situation, just say the lines."

And though he's getting considerably more screen time as one of Big Bang's leads, Parsons doesn't necessarily feel he's made it. He still marvels at the number of hoops actors have to jump through at every stage in their careers. "You feel like you've gotten through so many steps when you finally get an agent; you can't imagine how many hoops there are that you don't even know about," he says. "Half the time, you don't even know how hard it is for your agents to get you an audition until you find out later, 'Good Lord, that barely happened.'"

Bio briefs

Was initially confused about who was behind The Big Bang Theory: "I'm not great with names, and I went in there expecting to meet Chuck Woolery, the guy from Love Connection. I thought, I didn't know he was writing at all, and my agency sounded excited about it, so what's he doing?"

Uses 3-by-5 note cards to keep track of his longer stretches of Big Bang dialogue. "I put my little cue line on the front and my lines on the back. I just pace around the house and drill them."

BBT's Jim Parsons tells the secrets of Sheldon by Quendrith Johnson

Jim Parsons plays ultra-geek Sheldon to Johnny Galecki's arch-nerd Leonard on the CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory. In real life, the native Texan is almost nothing like the nit-picky repressed genius he plays on TV. Except for a few things. He has insanely perfect posture, everything in his dressing room on Warner Brothers' stage 25 is laid out in its logical order, and Parsons, 35, admits to speaking a little Klingon. When he played "Tim," a Medieval Times knight, in the Zach Braff dramedy "Garden State" Parsons actually clarified the definition of an obscure Klingon phrase: "This one means kill Kirk; and also, Hallelujah — depending on the context." You might have seen him on "Judging Amy" or the series "Ed," but you won't forget him in "Big Bang Theory." Named after the expanding universe theory, BBT is the newest Geek Chic show brought to you by Chuck Lorre ("Roseanne," "Two and a Half Men"). As we caught up with him, Parsons was passing the time between scenes by watching The View, sipping a Mountain Dew, and ignoring a script on the coffee table.

Which episode is this (script on the table)?

This is the second to last one. It's called The Peanut Reaction. It has to with the fact that Wolowitz has a peanut allergy. His peanut allergy is utilized in the preparation of Leonard's surprise party. Which happens really early on in the episode, the surprise party, so I assume it is not a plot point one shouldn't reveal.

How do you keep all of these plot points to yourself?

It's not that hard, I am so concerned with learning the lines. I'm trying so hard to get them straight. I sometimes don't even have a cogent train of thought on what the plot of an episode because of the lines. Sometimes you are riding the train through it. Hopefully I am able to act when I am repeating them.

Nerd vs geek, is it used differently on the show?

We've used both. Penny has referred to Leonard and I as "geeky bastards." Wolowitz has referred to some of Leonard's comic books/character collection as Nerdmobilia. In one episode he's talking about "in local nerd news." Obviously these characters don't see themselves as either nerds or geeks. In fact, I don't think as we're playing them, as actors, we don't see them as nerds or geeks. They have passions that are foreign to a lot of society, as far as being so absorbed in that tiny world of sciences. There's Nerdvana.

What about Leonard, 'Le-nerd'?

With Sheldon and Leonard there's a lot of shorthand. There's a lot of the balancing act that you see in couples. Not just romantic couples, but in an odd couple, where there's a lot of — I don't want to say — finishing each other sentences. For example, Leonard has to frequently explain to someone else what Sheldon just said. Or kind of cover-up what Sheldon just said, because even if he is saying something that is a fact, it may come across as offensive to somebody. Leonard comes in as his back-up.

When Penny walks into your world, how do you see her?

The Sheldon-Penny relationship has developed into something really fun. They are both such extreme oddities to the other. In the spectrum of the colors in our ensemble, Sheldon is on one polar end — Penny is the other pole. Her, being completely of this world.

She works at the Cheesecake Factory, right, that's reality?

Exactly. And Sheldon being not of this world. So when they are put together, the communication always breaks down. They reach an impasse — I don't want to say a stare-off, but it always ends. Because of Leonard they always deal with each other.

What's your favorite Penny moment; the Penny sings episode?

We had a lot of fun, in the episode where my mother (Laurie Metcalf) came to town and I got fired. I also recently had a lot of fun with her recently when we did the sick episode and she got stuck with me when I went to the Cheesecake Factory. She took me home, had to take care of me. We had a scene in bed where she'd tucking me in. That was really lovely. Anytime we meet up, even if it's just meeting in the lobby getting our mail at the same time, it is always very enjoyable. Partly it is just me and Kaley's energy being different. The whole yin and yang — that makes it feel like a very emotionally full scene.

What did you think when you saw the poncho vs sarape "Luminous Fish" script and the colorful waco outfit you had to wear?

Insane, I know. I loved it the moment I read it. I was so excited to get to work with Laurie Metcalf. I loved working with her. I was probably scared I would forget some of the lines. The fear comes from moments of lost faith. Because the whole experience as far as lines go, for any actor, you have to have faith it is going to come out. It is of no use for me to think of my next line when things are going on. You can't be thinking about what's coming next, even if it is eight theories and five terms you can't pronounce and never heard of five days ago.

What about the terms you are having to learn, examples of terms?

Isotope is easy, but string theory is harder to grasp. One that is not even hard to pronounce this week that I had to drill into me is something called an 802.11 N wireless router. It's really not that much to it: it is literally 8-zero-one-one-letter N wireless router. But I looked at it, and I didn't know what that was, number one. I never asked for one; I never heard anybody talk about it. I had to ask (the writers) flat out 'How do you say the number?

Do they say eight-hundred and two point eleven?

No It's just eight-oh-two-eleven-N. It's nothing you haven't seen said in English, but some of the terms have to be drilled in — even if your brain doesn't know it, your mouth does.

There are so many Roseanne alums, is it like the cast of Roseanne went to college, got a PhD, and showed up here?

Well we have two people at our heart, which are Chuck (Lorre, show-runner) and Johnny, who a lot of people have seen associated with Roseanne. I was just going to say Sara Gilbert too. People loved, and watched that show.

Is that your art on the wall, did you pick out everything here in your dressing room?

First off, they all came furnished. If you get a chance to see other people's dressing rooms, you'll see how lucky I got. Most of the things are picked out. A couple are gifts, like this (Cosmos poster), that was given to me by David Saltzberg, our (physics) consultant on the show. I picked up that (block print curtain) at Target —

Wait, is that a shower curtain?

Do you have a shower curtain as a room divider? Is this — yeah — that is probably a shower curtain, you're right. It looks like a shower curtain rod.

That's pretty geeky, isn't it? To have a shower curtain for a divider in a dressing room?

Except this is where the clothes are (behind it), so if there are people here during a show, and I have to change, I can do that. They get the (ankle view) peep show.

You're the one who actually worked at Microsoft; does that mean underneath it all you are a hardcore intellectual?

No. No. I worked as the assistant to the Arts Editor for this online magazine slash guide for each city, called Sidewalk at the time. I knew people that told me they had positions to fill; it started out as data entry, then the (assistant) opening came. I was mostly the mascot. I walked around and talked to people. I like to think I was a pleasure to have there. I didn't even get paid through Microsoft; I got paid through a temp agency, but I did work there. I think I was mostly hired to work there because I was an actor.

At the top of the list of tics and quirks of Sheldon, which ones do you like?

One of the top ones is he has very specific places he sits, at home, in the restaurant. I like that one because he always backs it up with a lot of logic. I feel like very few are phobias. If Sheldon has phobias, he is of course smart enough to legitimize them through logic. There has been nothing that he hasn't been offered up an explanation for when someone rolls their eyes at it.

He's not good at relating to other people. He's uncomfortable with them. I enjoy talking to people. It's fun to play. The only way I can relate to that is that I have a huge shy streak within me. So I understand the fear of being made fun of, or the fear of doing something wrong. That could keep one from wanting to communicate too much; if you don't communicate too much, you can't fail socially. Maybe we will reveal it in an episode I haven't read yet —

Like his background, a troubled past? Maybe it's the mom, Laurie Metcalf?

Blame it on the mother. It is interesting to play around with ideas such as that: is he logically avoiding people, or is he trained that way because he was constantly misunderstood. He can't help but be who he is, and he can't help keep misstep-ping socially. This brings us full circle to the beginning of our conversation, thank God he's got someone like Leonard around who is more cognizant of the niceties.

So are you as Sheldon smarter than Leonard?

I think so. I know Sheldon thinks so.

What did you get on your SATs in real life?

I got 1010; it's not good. But you get extra points because you actually admitted it. It goes to show standardized testing is nonsense —

Yeah.

I'm from Texas, where they are fairly big into testing. I have my mother, my sister and my best friend in Texas are all teachers. They are both in elementary; he is in high school, my best friend. They are always dealing with tests.

What are some fun things about Sheldon?

What's fun is that part of Sheldon, getting to play that part of Sheldon that doesn't realize what he's saying to somebody else. The implications. That's my favorite thing, if I had to label one. It's the things he can get away with saying, as we've built this character, as they've written it. It's not mean when he says (something inappropriate). He can be short, especially short, with illogical situations. He once again he has a logical line of back-up for why he is feeling the way he is feeling. Normally it makes sense. Thank God I like Sheldon so much; I am the one playing him. He'd be pleased that I am defending him. Although he wouldn't need the defense. He wouldn't understand why we were calling him into question at all.

Do you have conversations with him?

I try not to. I didn't before we sat down here!

Ever dream as Sheldon?

No. But I do dream that I am at work frequently. They can be (anxiety dreams), or they can also be very enjoyable. I had a couple of strange ones, one last night where Johnny and Simon weren't dealing with me at work any more. They would have lunch alone, without me. I have no idea what that was about — and I didn't feel anxious, it was sad. There was nothing to be done about it. But I realized when I got up this morning that it was some sort of anxiety. You never know.

Is the set, the physical set, in your head when you're rehearsing?

I'm very big on a couple of things, one is note cards. I fill out my cue on the front side, and my full line on the next. I have to for drilling purposes on some of the words and turns of phrase. I have always been a pacer. I do a lot of moving when I am trying to do the lines. It helps me to get it into my body. I don't need to move as much when saying it front of an audience in character. He movements are so limited. Absolutely. There is a cutting loose aspect to more flamboyant movement that doesn't suit, that's not what Sheldon is about. There is a constricted-ness. He is (repressed) and he is living his life so much in here (his head).

Have you ever lost it, cracked up laughing, during taping?

One of the few times I did break was in one of the episodes when we first came back from the strike. I was doing this thing where I tried to blow up Leonard's head through the whole episode. At the very end of the episode. They gave (Kaley) this direction without us knowing it. When Penny got mad; she looked at Simon and did the whole blow up your head thing. Number one, it was seeing the movement I had been doing all week, and going "God, I look silly, because she does." There was one the other day, this is just rehearsal, I was belly laughing. Kunal's character asks Penny something. "What should I do with the women if they show up?" Her response was "stare at them and make them feel uncomfortable." It's just funny, but it has been really fun to watch the Penny character come into her own. We've always said from the beginning, Chuck did, that that's our Everyman: Penny. Kaley as the actress has become so in tune. It is very appropriate that it is a female embodying that role. It's extreme mothering. A feminine quality dealing with these four foolish boys. She has become real comfortable in the skin of Penny. It is one of the biggest pleasures of working on this show; you have this ongoing relationship with the writers.

Chuck Lorre is Mr. Brilliant, you mean?

Exactly. It's a relationship that doesn't grow through the technicality of working it out, just literally growing by working together. It's 'what's good coming out of this characters mouth?' That's what is so rewarding about doing these back-to-back.

How would Sheldon peg each of the others in one word?

Leonard: loyal. Wolowitz is silly. Koothrapali is confused. Penny is an enigma.

Still?

Oh my God, yes. There will be a very special episode in Season 8, I think, before she is not an enigma to him. He has a line in this episode that is coming — I hope I am not revealing too much — she comes over and says "I want to talk to you." And he says "About what? We have no overlapping areas of interest that I am aware of, and as you know I don't care for chit chat." That is exactly it, why would we want to talk. If circumstances dictate we are together, we will get through it — but logically speaking, what a waste of time, we won't get anything done. We won't come to any final conclusion.

Is Sheldon going to have a major blow out with any of the boys?

You know one of the things that was very fun was in the physics bowl episode, where the other guys became irritated with Sheldon and kicked him off the team. He formed his own team. They gave Sheldon one specific scene with Leonard where he kicked him off. It was the only, or rare time, where he has flared any emotion. He said he was going to get his own team and reduce him to dust — him and the other guys. He said "it's on bitch." I felt natural doing it, it didn't feel out of character, but I honestly felt a little twinge of 'whoa' because I don't feel that way normally. Because Sheldon doesn't get angry; it's pretty cold hard logic. But...

Any other secrets?

I have never done any job this long, as this. I don't know how it goes on other shows, which was my point, I know we are in a rare position. The scripts come from a really good place, from the read through, the first day of rehearsal as the week moves on. The changes we experience are so minimal. A turn of phrase here or there, but as far as repositioning of a scene — that doesn't happen. They (the writers) know. It's a great relationship.

Big Bang-up role for Jim Parsons by Bill Keveney

Jim Parsons can relate to his character on The Big Bang Theory: the super-finicky, supercilious genius Sheldon Cooper.

"There are certain things about Sheldon that I feel I'm low-grade with," says Parsons, whose obsessive-compulsive physicist has become a critical favorite on the second-season CBS comedy (tonight, 8 ET/PT).

"I've got some grumpy-old-man aspects of me, (but) I'm not nearly as rigid as Sheldon," Parsons says. "I can be a little obsessive with things, but not quite to the degree he can."

In Bang, the fussy eccentric forms a brainy Mutt & Jeff with his somewhat less oblivious roommate, Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), making for a pair of scientists whose academic brilliance is counterbalanced by their social ineptitude.

But Parsons also differs in many ways from his TV alter ego. For one, the actor does not speak Klingon. "His interests are so divergent from mine. I don't know comic books at all. I don't know superheroes at all, unless they're out in movies," says Parsons, who plays the piano, enjoys crossword puzzles and is "a political junkie" who loves listening to talk radio.

Of course, that's why it's called acting. And on that front, Parsons is superb, Big Bang executive producer Chuck Lorre says.

"I've never seen someone come along like this, with so much uncanny skill and intuition," says Lorre, whose résumé includes Two and a Half Men, Dharma & Greg, Roseanne and Cybill. "The chemistry between (Jim and Johnny) is phenomenal."

Parsons, who spends hours memorizing complex, scientifically dense dialogue, praises Bang's writers for developing the character, whose signature idiosyncrasies include an amusing rhythmic door knock.

Lorre credits the actor's influence. "He has a great sense of control over every part of his body, the way he walks, holds his hands, cocks his head, the facial tics. It's inspired," he says. "To be honest, we're standing there going, 'Wow!' If anything, we say, 'You know that thing you did earlier? Do it again.' "

Houston native Parsons, 35, shares another trait with Sheldon: dedication to his craft. He caught the bug during a first-grade play, studied acting at the University of Houston and earned a master's from the University of San Diego while performing at the prestigious Old Globe theater.

Parsons has appeared in such films as Garden State and School for Scoundrels, but TV delivered the breakout role in a series that is up 9% in viewers (9.7 million) and drew its biggest audience on Nov. 24 (just over 10 million).

The Sheldon role appears to be increasing in prominence, but Parsons says it has to do with the character "taking three pages of dialogue to say what other characters can say in one sentence."

Lorre says Bang remains balanced between the odd couple, who get support from their geek chorus, Howard (Simon Helberg) and Kunal (Rajesh Koothrappali), and beautiful neighbor Penny (Kaley Cuoco), who intellectually and socially seems to come from a different species.

The Penny character has found stronger footing this season, Parsons says, creating a great comic opportunity for Sheldon. "They are kind of the North and South Pole of communication skill. The other characters fall somewhere in between them."

In a recent episode, Penny won a psychological battle with the help of Leonard, who revealed his roommate's "kryptonite": fear of his mother. Leonard also happens to be smitten with Penny, a feeling alien to Sheldon, even when beautiful grad students lust after his intellect.

"There seems to be no consciousness of that on his level at all," Parsons says. "That poor, poor boy."

Theory: Everyone's alienated by Bruce R. Miller

LOS ANGELES — Geeks are chic this year because “everyone feels some sort of alienation,” says actor Jim Parsons.

The new kid at school? The smart guy at work? They’re us in an unfamiliar situation, he explains. “We like watching characters who don’t fit into the bigger majority because they’re so readily relatable.”

In ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ Parsons and Johnny Galecki play Sheldon and Leonard, brainiacs who live next door to a gorgeous woman who doesn’t quite have the same mental skills. Leonard is smitten; Sheldon, realistic.

“Sheldon knows the outcome of this experiment and can predict it with realistic assurance,” Parsons says. “He knows Leonard doesn’t have a chance with her.”

But that doesn’t stop Leonard from hoping. “There’s always the possibility that something might happen,” Galecki says. Besides, “even Eddie Van Halen was locked in his bedroom for the first 20 years of his life. And I’m sure it was pretty shocking to him when he finally left.”

For Galecki and Parsons, being outsiders is common.

Interested in theater since childhood, Galecki was teased throughout childhood. “It didn’t help that I was wearing eyeliner and a fedora on the school bus. I was asking for it. But my friends had always been people in the chorus of whatever play I was doing.” By the time he joined “Roseanne” (as Sara Gilbert’s boyfriend), “I had long left school and moved out on my own. The environment I was in was show business already.”

Parsons, too, knew from an early age that he wanted to be an actor. The stage was home. Every other place was not. “I never felt comfortable in athletic situations,” he says. “I was really glad when that phase of my life was over.”

Now, as the star of a sitcom, he feels comfortable, accepted. Playing a character who’s naive? “It’s extremely familiar. I’ve done a lot of characters that have an openness, a naivete.”

Still, both Galecki and Parsons were uncertain about the fate of ‘Big Bang.’ Filmed nearly two years ago, it was put on hold. Then, the female role was recast.

Waiting to hear if it’d get on the air was taxing, Parsons says. “I couldn’t have been more depressed. I was just mentally and emotionally exhausted, wondering what would happen. When we finally got the word, it was the best news in the world…but you were just wheelspinning. I considered myself a working actor but I was completely inactive.”

His solution: Running. “I can’t tell you how much it helped.”

Galecki, meanwhile, made his Broadway debut in “The Little Dog Laughed,” a comedy about closeted actors in Hollywood. The show was nominated for several Tonys and introduced him to a new world.

“It was terrifying,” he says. “But that’s the fun of theater — it’s a highwire you have to walk every night. After a while, you become callous and start to jiggle that wire. You try to throw the other actors off in order to keep the spontaneity and energy.”

While Broadway was never a goal, it allowed Galecki to reach outside his comfort zone. Now, he says, he’s addicted and wants to do more. ‘Big Bang’ is shot before an audience, giving him a similar buzz. With ‘Roseanne,’ “I didn’t feel any pressure.” As a lead on a new sitcom, “it’s there.”

Both actors say they relate to their characters “even though I can’t think about physics for 25 minutes without having an anxiety attack,” Galecki says.

Like Leonard, “I’m not very good at talking with girls,” Galecki explains. “I never know if someone is flirting with me. I’m absolutely clueless when it comes to signs. It’s really pathetic.”

Parsons admits he’s more than a little obsessive/compulsive. “I’m a Purell guy, a hand washer. And every once in a while I’m a ‘Did I leave the iron on?’ guy. I get out of bed, too, to check to see if I locked the door. Is it normal? No, but they have drugs for it. I just elect not to take them.”

For Kaley Cuoco, who plays their friend across the hall, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ is proof good things come to those who wait. Passed over for the role when she auditioned two years ago, she got the job when producers recast. The character was too hard, too edgy in the first pilot. “It wasn’t fun to watch,” she says. “The audience didn’t enjoy these guys being put down by this gorgeous girl.” For the second pilot, the character was rewritten and Cuoco was cast.

“It felt great…I’d waited so long and then didn’t get the job. When it happened, I thought, ‘This was meant to be.’” Like Galecki, Cuoco wondered if she could make the transition from teen star (she was on ’8 Simple Rules’) to adult actress. “You play a teen and then you never work again,” she says. “But, I’m lucky. I’m in my 20s and I’m playing someone in her 20s.” Alienation? Of course. “People in Hollywood look at you and think you’re what they see on screen.” The surprise? “I love horses and I know my way around a farm. They’re usually shocked when they hear that I love to move the hay.”