Penny and Sheldon

More bang for your buck by Angel Cohn

We like to think that we love all of the delightfully geeky brainiacs on The Big Bang Theory equally, but when the chance to talk to Jim Parsons came about, we got a bit giddy. Parsons is the Emmy-nominated actor who charmingly brings the neurotically nerdy Sheldon to life every week. We thought we'd get to chat about his chances of getting nominated again this year, find out what he thinks of the Sheldon/Penny shippers and maybe even get some dish on the last few episodes of the season — all of which we eventually did. But first the conversation took a bizarre turn after some bicoastal confusion and a shared suffering of motion sickness. Note: You probably will want to change your seat if you are flying with either of us.

Thanks for chatting with me today. I really am quite a fan of your show.

I've met you in person before. Right? Or is that not true?

No. I don't get out to California frequently and I don't really like to fly much.

Well, that's okay. I don't think the jet-setting life is really for most people.

Yes, I get motion sickness, and I read that you do as well.

Oh, awful. It's horrible! I'm normally pretty good on a plane. What's tricky about the plane, for me, is really the runway part, because it's impossible — actually, I'm getting a little sick thinking about it right now — but you know what I mean? Even if you're looking out the window, it's really confusing. And then turbulence makes me ill. The good thing is — I should knock on wood — I don't get scared during turbulence, like, I don't have those weird thoughts. I've never puked during turbulence, though.

Consider yourself very lucky.

Isn't that the worst feeling, though? There's nothing like it. And I feel like I'm on the verge of being able to control it, but then I can't. I'm like, "I feel like I can almost stop this from happening within me!" because it's such a weird sensation, like nothing else. But then I can't! It's out of control. Then you can take Dramamine, but then you don't wake up. You just sleep through whatever it is. I want to enjoy the part that I'm not sick through, not just be dead through it.

I usually sleep... Anyway, on a more pleasant note, congratulations on how the show's doing. And Emmy time is getting near — are you getting nervous/excited about whether you're going to get nominated again?

Oh God, no! I'm not nervous or excited. I think I purposely try to keep any feeling out of it. It always comes up, though. You can't avoid thinking about it. Now, I became a member of the Academy [of Television Arts and Sciences], so today I received my first "For Your Consideration" screener, and so that will be a constant reminder that the time is coming up, and never mind the fact that between the studio and your own publicist, you do sort of make you own little push, if you're gonna do it at all. So things will be timed to Emmy consideration, so it's there, but I don't know. I was really surprised last year [to get nominated]. And I've always said, when I watched award shows growing up, the unpredictable nature about it, how could you ever expect to get nominated? And I get certain people who have been nominated so many times, maybe, for a specific role or a category, I could see you'd be like "Eee! Hit in the gut!" if you weren't nominated, and I get that, that sounds bad — but besides that, I don't know.

So eight seasons from now, when you're nominated again...

[Laughs] There we go; your lips to God's ear! Exactly!

What did you submit as your Emmy piece?

I haven't had to yet. So I don't know.

That would be hard to pick. How do you decide?

Well, it's weird, because even thinking about last year, or the year before that, once you're not picking once it's over, like a few months away from it, you're like, "Big deal! Just pick one!" But I'm telling you, every time now — this'll be the third time I've had to do it — it does feel a bit harrowing. You're like, "I could do this, but was my part big enough?" And I don't even know all the considerations that go into it. The biggest thing I'm waiting on now is we've got four new episodes left to air, and I want to watch them as much as [from a] viewer [perspective] as I can, to give them a fair shake. And other than that, I don't even have one that I'm completely learning toward at this moment.

Have you finished filming for this season?

Yes, we finished about a week and a half ago.

Can you give us any hints about what to expect?

Oh, heavens yes! They're probably all boring details that have been released somewhere else. But I know that one of the ones coming up, we're going to go back in time a bit — not in a time-machine type of way — but show some history as to how some of the friendships came to be. How we all met. It was so fun! And I thought the writers, as usual, handled it so well and kept it both realistic, but interesting. I really enjoyed doing it. It was very difficult to play, I'll be honest with you, because Sheldon, as it turns out, has made some — and this is surprising to say — social strides since he met Leonard, which meant there was some backpedaling to do on my part in some of the execution of Sheldon's history. It was more challenging than I thought it would be. We would rehearse it. And basically I'd finish a run-through, all week long and they'd be like, "Go a little bit further, go a little bit further." But by the time we did to for the taping night, it was really fun to do and really fun to share that with the audience that was there. So that's coming up. And the other thing, which I know has been talked about some — but I feel it's interesting, because I found it still confusing even being finished with it — is how they go online and fill out a profile page for Sheldon for dating. And the dating site actually finds a match.

What does that match look like?

Well, it looks like Mayim Bialik! TV's Blossom! But we only meet up — I don't think I'm giving away secrets, here — but if anyone is looking to find out answers from me over what this means, I really couldn't tell you, which was perfect that it ended that way. But I said this to a friend of mine who asked me how it went: "I can't imagine anybody will be able to tell you what's about to happen, because I just played the scene and have no idea what's about to happen." I cannot imagine!

So it's a cliffhanger?

Well, our version of such. [Laughs] There's no life at stake.

It's not like an episode of Lost.

Exactly! But that being said, I'm kind of left in some cliffhanger every week, because I never know what is coming up, which is kind of one of the joys — for me at least — of doing this show. Sometimes you have more of a look into the future, like you'll know this is coming up, but they don't tell us anything. The only time I ever get close to getting inside information as far as what the next episode will be, is it'll be like, "Do you already know how to play a recorder?" and you'll be like, "What the hell are we doing with that?"

Right, like, "Do you have any aversions to ball pits?"

Exactly! And higher than they were before I did it, I'll put that out there right now. Those balls cannot be cleaned, as horrible as that statement sounds. There's no amount of cleaning to get those ball-pit balls to a satisfactory, lack-of-dirt-in-your-hair state. There's no such thing.

A lot of Purell?

Yes, but I cannot tell you; We would rehearse the ball pit scene, and I would go to the bathroom to wash my hands afterward. The sink water looked like — and I'm not kidding — it looked like you'd been working on your car, or something. Just the dark brownish-black that would be going down. And I'd be like, "That's disgusting." And then I'd wipe my clean hands, I'd dry them on paper towels, and I'd go ahead and just kind of wipe those across my face, and then I would look and go, "Ah! I'm pink where I just wiped, and now I'm gray everywhere else!" I just wouldn't be able to tell before I'd wiped my face, it was just like, "I'm covered in filth." And I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that if ball pits are beds of disease, I'm not surprised.

Keep your children out of them!

I would! Or, just bathe them afterwards and they're probably fine. But you know, that was the other thing: There wasn't any time to take a complete shower, which is really what you needed after rehearsing the scene. I'll tell you this, too: They're much harder to push through them underneath than it is in a swimming pool. There was the sensation I had when I would tunnel through them, but it was much harder and there was much more resistance than I thought. And I didn't think it'd be true, they're just hollow balls and I'd think water pressure would be more. And maybe it is.

Well, you practically had to swim in them for episode.

Yea, that's exactly what it was. It really is. Which I'm telling you, even though it was dirty: It was so fun!

I watched that scene like 10 times!

Did you really?

It was worth it. "Bazinga!" never fails to make me laugh.

I loved that whole idea. When we shot it, I talked to Chuck [Lorre] and Bill [Prady] right afterwards, because we had pre-shot it, since it'd be hard to capture that in front of the audience. And I was like, "That was such a good idea on Bill's part," and I really felt it was a big highlight of the advantage of kind of the base topic of this show being science. It's one more example of how if you can think of it, we can find a way to fit it in, in the way that science encompasses everything. We have almost this built-in excuse for wherever you want to go, as far as plot line and bringing a ball pit in. I think that's one of the fun things about playing these characters, too, they're unlike anybody that I've ever met or dealt with. It's hard to put any sort of, "That wouldn't happen," sort of "realistic limitations" on them — other than maybe super powers. Other than that, I don't really know what they're capable of. They're going to think of things and do things that I would never dream of. That makes it really fun.

Speaking of the crazy science; How hard is it to learn all that science jargon every week?

It's hard! I would be absolutely lying through my teeth if I said that was the easiest part of the job. It's absolutely the hardest part of the job. I like doing it. I guess it's a good thing, since I decided to be an actor, I do enjoy memorizing. I do enjoy spending the time alone, breaking down sentences and just rambling them over and over again until it is second nature. But it's every week, the same thing with it. And while I keep enjoying it, by the end of the season, you do start feeling a little brain dead about it. It's like, "Are you kidding?!" That's just the thing with all these characters, perhaps Sheldon to a greater degree; it's not natural speak. Beyond just the actual words being used — Just the formation of the words in a sentence! And the topics of conversation! People ask if there is a lot of improv on the set... Where would we start?! You know? If I lose my place, we're just screwed. We have to start over, I can't get us back on track. But, once again, in a sort of sick way, I really kind of enjoy that. It requires a certain specificity — and not to sound hopelessly deep about this — in the effort to execute this, in the need to be so specific about things, it once again opens up a lot of freedom. You have this very defined train track, if you will, and through these words and structured sentences, once you're riding on that track and secure on it, you're kind of free to add other colors and do other things. I'm telling you, I may just be a sadist, but I really think there's some enjoyment there.

There's this fan base out there that really wants to see Sheldon and Penny together. Do you have any thoughts about that? Do you think it would happen?

Well, I'm a big believer in never say never. And as I've already admitted, I don't speak with these writers, [so] I never know what they are going to do, but that being said, I would be jaw-dropped if that ever happened. You know, I go on both sides of going "that's insane" and "I totally get it." What I get about it is that is the very essence of what I think makes — and it's in many different shows, where you have a couple characters, where you put them together — what makes it enjoyable is that, in this case, they're so different. I've said from the beginning; the five characters in this piece these two are polar opposites of each other, her being most Earth-bound and tactile, and him being the most, literally, in his head. And that's fun! And just sticking them on stage at the same time, sparks begin to fly immediately because they're so different. So that, in that way of opposites attract, I completely get why it would be fun to go yin and yang where they could bring out the best in each other, whatever. Where I think it's insane — I shouldn't say insane — where I think the hope for it is off-base, I feel they've really developed — and again, it's hard for me to say, because I'm playing it — but I feel they've really developed a brother-and-sister-type-thing between the two of them.

I can totally see that.

Yea, it's not... I can't imagine — I think you do have to look really hard to find anything sort of any sexual anything that's happened with Sheldon since the show began. But especially in a one-on-one scene with Penny. An actual sort of physical thing happening?! I don't think so at all! He's seen more of her body when she got injured than Leonard has, and things didn't go anywhere. And the other thing is, if my wishes were listened to, I wouldn't want them to, because I personally enjoy playing that more sibling dynamic with her in the scenes than I would necessarily a romantic thing. I think in that siblings thing, there's a purity there. There's an innocence to them.

I know you said there's not a lot of time for improv, but is it fun on set? Is there a lot of cracking up?

It's very fun on set. And it's an extremely enjoyable place to work. I will say though — and there's a good deal of laughter and stuff — there's not a good deal of pranks. I was discussing this with somebody recently how the question of, "Are there a lot of jokes on set?" frequently comes up, and the answer is no! Surprisingly not! And I don't know what that's bred of. I think number one, everybody's trying to get the job done, is the big thing. And it's easy to say, "Well, we're just being very serious about our comedy," and I guess that's true to a degree. I don't know, I don't know what that's from. But we really get in and do our work. But we have fun! Being on-set is fun.

I don't think I would have been able to see everybody in all of the guys in their female superhero character costumes without bursting out laughing.

[Sighs] I don't know what to say to that, either. I'm trying to think, what was our reaction?

Well, you're all professional actors.

Well, that has nothing to do with it; we're all still hopelessly immature in our own ways. I think: We were all four crammed into the costume shop getting changed because we had to do it quickly. And you are sort of giggling and shocked seeing other people in their costumes. But for me, I was so concerned with, "Oh my God! How does this look?!" I'm not used to having anything near this on, and we're about to shoot this for TV. It's going to air, and there's a star right on my crotch! There's a certain — not horror — but you're very concerned. And even the hair issue! Like, I don't know what to do with this hair once we get out there! Do I need to be shoving it out of my face? Do I need to touch it at all? I don't know. And I'll be honest, one of the things is, something like that in the script is so.. it is what it is. There's not really any nuance to that. There's no finding the humor in this subtle moment. So I think part of that pressure lays on, where you're like, "I hope people don't hate this when we come out," because it's not like I can shake it up. It is what it is.

Are you working on anything else during your break, or are you just resting?

I'm hopefully going to rest a little bit. Between doing the press and stuff, it's amazing how far this season goes beyond stage time. And a couple of things I'm hoping will pan out. If they don't, a break isn't the worst thing in the world. But fingers crossed I'll get to work on something.

Are there any other comedies that you watch that you can tell us you're a fan of, even if they're your competitors?

Oh, I don't mind. I've really enjoyed — and I'm a broken record when I say this, because everyone else says it, too — but I've really enjoyed Modern Family. I just think it's fun. I don't feel like I get a lot of time for tons of TV... but I've tried to make time for that. And I know one of the guys on it, and I really enjoy it. I think it's really well done. And like I said, I feel like a broken record. But truth is truth.

Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons on his newfound fame, his Emmy nomination, and being typecast by Tyrone Warner

As brilliant physicist Sheldon Cooper, Jim Parsons brings to life a beloved, dysfunctional mastermind.

"The Big Bang Theory" follows a groups of geniuses who know all about how the universe works: except for women. When Penny, a Midwestern actress looking for her break in the big city, moves across the hall, she rocks their world — and learns to love their geeky charms.

Parsons was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and won the 2009 Television Critics Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy for his work as Sheldon on "Big Bang Theory."

During an interview with CTV.ca, Parsons talked at length about his role on the series.

On how his life has changed with the success of "The Big Bang Theory":

It's the most, as an actor, I've ever worked consecutively and, therefore, the most I've ever made money acting in a row. And I hate to bring it down to such a base level, but — although other things have changed, and maybe I'll think of those that sound more interesting… Actually, the biggest thing for me still is that it's the most financial freedom I've ever known doing this job, which, you know, isn't that interesting because everybody who knows that I'm on TV knows that. But that's the fact of it.

It's the little things like that that trip me up the most. Like I remember when we first started airing, like they would have billboards up for us. Or, like, homemade T shirts or whatever or — I don't know. It's the times I don't expect it that it really takes me off guard.

On being recognized by his fans:

I do run into lots of people in the street, it's true. And, you know… that’s weird. The only time it's a little strange for me is if I'm out shopping or especially if I'm in a restaurant eating and I realize that I've been spotted and somebody is looking.

I've learned to do is just go, "Don't worry about it." It's taken me a long time, and I can't do it all the time, not worry about it, because it feels weird, especially if you're eating.

On how much of Sheldon is "written" and how much is his own creation:

Well, in a literal sense all of it is written; all of it's dictated. I'm not stupid. I realize that everything they've written is going through, you know, my own sick filter. So it is being executed by me. And never mind the fact — and this one is impossible to pinpoint — we've now been working together for three years essentially, so they (the writers) hear us. They're writing for us. You know what I mean?

Like not necessarily about our lives or whatever, but rhythms and "What would sound good coming out of their mouth?" essentially. I put full blame, if you will, on the writers every time, though. I really do. I — once again, I understand that it's going through my interpretation of it, but to my own foolishness sometimes, I always feel like I'm executing exactly what they said to.

And part of the reason I feel that way is because it's a safety net for me. I feel very secure. I'm able to really kind of let go and get into it because it's their invention and I want to execute it to the best of my ability. So I guess the answer is sort of I don't know.

I don't know how much I'm affecting what it is. It's evolving, but I don't write it. So other than the doing of it, which is really hard to stand back from at the same time you're doing it, it's kind of hard for me to understand what effect I'm having on that evolution and that they're just taking on your own.

On struggling with the technical dialog on the show:

It’s a very fun struggle. I can literally feel my brain going, "Would you knock it off? Enough." But I still love it. I'm lucky that we tape on Tuesday nights as opposed to being a Monday-through-Friday show. So I get to rehearse Wednesday. I get to rehearse Thursday. I get to rehearse Friday and then Saturday and Sunday. And sometimes I don't need it as much as others, but some episodes, I really do. I'm able to be alone with just those words and just kind of pace around my house and really get it in.

But once again, it's frustrating at times, but it's one of the great joys for me. And from day one of auditioning for this, I loved it. The audition was not — was not easy to get yourself through. It was like, "Oh, my God" — but fun in that kind of puzzle-solving way of going, "No. How does this work? Where is this rhythm they've written in here? Where's the funny in this? Where's the humanity in this technical mumbo jumbo" or just things I just don't identify with naturally? But I enjoy it. And I think, once again, they do an excellent job of — it's not — it's not an impossible mystery or puzzle. It's there, you know.

On who is smarter in real life: himself or his co-star Johnny Galecki:

Honestly, we're all different from each other. I think it's one of the things that, from the first casting session between the two of us, worked. And I don't know why. There's a yin and yang about us, not only as characters written, but as human beings. I've said it in the beginning, and I don't mean it in a mean way, but there was no reason to believe that that would work between the two of us.

We're very different people. Going back to it all going through the filter of my own brain, whatever is happening with the filter of it through his brain, it's kind of nice. I think it's the same way that its fun seeing Sheldon and Penny together, you know. I could trip out my brain for days trying to think of how every actor in this show — how the script goes through their brain. What are they thinking? It really makes my head hurt just to even talk about it. I can't even imagine. But it's very interesting that we all get to that point of Tuesday night taping and we all have to do it. But I don't know what they do to get there, you know. Pray? I do sometimes.

On feeling extra pressure due to his Emmy nomination:

I guess we all feel our own pressures in one way or the other, and maybe there's something. But I would be making it up if I said specifically I felt any sort of, like, change. I don't feel very different — going back to how I felt about the character from audition one. In some ways, it is what it has been. You know what I mean? And certainly for me and my feelings about it and my approach to it, whether it's an episode where Sheldon-heavy or it's an episode where he gets to sit back a little more in the group, I feel — other than maybe having a few extra hours on the weekend not to memorize, I feel pretty much the same about it week in and week out, you know.

I was nervous about going (to the Emmys), and I don't even know why. There was just something on-the-spot feeling about it. Chuck Lorre was talking to me about it. He texted me about it. It was just like, "Enjoy this," you know. And I'd kind of gone through it in my own head. I did feel oddly, a little nervous just about going, but then there was a part of me that was like, "Don't be" — "don't be an old man and look back and go, 'Well, I wish I would have enjoyed that. I worried my way right through that time of my life.'" What a waste. And like I say, I was thinking that already. And Chuck, just out of the blue, kind of said, "Whatever happens, just have a really good time." Because if you're not, there's no point in that, you know. You're not — it's not even working on an episode. And maybe that was part of the pressure in a situation like that. There was nothing to work on. There was nothing to do. You're just supposed to show up and put on a tux. And then there's going to be a camera in your face, and it's going to be really close on you when they announce Alec Baldwin's name.

And — but, you know, as it turns out, that's really about the hardest part of it, is just that moment – my palms are sweating, thinking about it. Right before it happens is the worst part, because as wonderful as it would be, then you'd have to get up and talk.

On the roles he’s played before "Big Bang Theory," and being worried about getting type-cast as a geek:

I did a lot of theater, you know. A whole lot of theater. So I played a lot of different kinds of characters. As far as worrying (about typecasting), I'm sure that it will happen to a degree. One of the problems is not only does somebody see you every week as a certain character, but if you haven't gotten the chance to audition for them or they haven't seen anything else you've done, then they don't know anything else you've done. That's just a basic fact of life.

As far as worrying about it, though, I don't. And it's really twofold reasons why. Number one, other than doing my work and trying to find things to do that could change opinions, there's not that much I can do about it. All I can do is what I'm — keep working, you know. And the second thing of it is whether it's — whether I ever get to do TV again, whether I ever do movies, whatever I do, I know, just from how I feel and how I've always been, I will continue to work. Whether I'm doing a one-man show in my mother's backyard somewhere, I'll find something to do. And in that spirit of it, no, it doesn't worry me.

On how Sheldon is going to progress as a character on "The Big Bang Theory":

I've actually heard the producers say this before: Very, very slowly. Basically paint drying. It is fun to have hopes and dreams for these characters in a way, both as an actor and as an audience member. But there's a reliability factor about them that I don't want them to change too much. You know what I mean?

The most common question that comes up is "Will romance ever happen in Sheldon's life?" or whatever. And A, I think if it does, it won't be in the near future. But B, I think we could handle it in a way that could be very smartly done and protect the essence of the character and just simply add dimensions, you know. And that's one of the great joys about being on a television show that's able to stay on the air, is that you get a chance to be developing these characters.

And if I'd have heard that phrase a few years ago, I would have had a different view of what that meant. I would have thought that I would be more aware of the development going on. Good or bad, I find myself less aware of the development going on because I'm part of it. But you do start backlogging these histories and these characters, and they become these things. And so then I think eventually you can add some sort of slightly dramatic element that's different for them — in his case, maybe it would be a romance or whatever — and allow that to affect. I think what you don't want is to have anything that would dilute the character in any way, you know. And God forbid we normalize Sheldon or whatever, because why would you?

Hi diddle dee dee by Julene Snyder

Down the stairs, single-file, through a long, nondescript hallway, he takes us past one metal door after another after another until one finally opens to the inky concrete night. Familiar faces look up briefly, and then resume their private murmur. Goodbyes are said, directions are given, then Jim Parsons turns back to his colleagues and takes his place among them.

It's a lot easier getting off of the Warner Bros. lot than it was to get onto it. What with the lists, the security, the bag searches, the being handed off every 100 feet from one blue blazer-clad page to the next like batons in a relay race, becoming part of a "Live! Studio! Audience!" was more rigorous than seems reasonable.

Still walking. The soundstages look like enormous Quonset huts, except for the ones that are painted with trompe l'oeil to resemble monuments or piazzas or bowling alleys.

At last, the car and just one final guard, one more gate to be opened, then out into the real world, where the street wends past one walled complex after another after another, all designed to keep outsiders out and insiders in, so those behind the walls can keep on pumping out the flickering images that clamor for our oh-so-easily-bored attention.

The Big Bang Theory is funny. Given that it's a situation comedy, that's a good thing. The premise is both familiar and absurd: a pair of socially inept, brilliant physicist roommates live across the hall from a kooky gorgeous aspiring actress. Hijinks ensue.

Leonard: We need to widen our circle.
Sheldon: I have a very wide circle. I have 212 friends on MySpace.
Leonard: Yes, and you've never met one of them.
Sheldon: That's the beauty of it.

Jim Parsons, who earned his MFA through USD's partnership with The Old Globe in 2001, plays the role of Sheldon, a character described as a "beautiful mind with a neurotic but endearing personality." He lives with Leonard, portrayed by Johnny Galecki, who became well-known as a teenager when he played Darlene's long-term boyfriend David in Roseanne.

Sheldon is the über-geek in his crowd, which is saying something.

He's a hilarious mass of often-insufferable neuroses, and Parsons' rapid-fire delivery and gift for physical comedy jump off the screen whenever he's in a scene. The show was conceived by TV veteran Chuck Lorre (Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men), and was recently picked up by CBS through 2011.

In conversation, the baby-faced Parsons is both like and unlike Sheldon. His voice tends to careen into a higher register when he's excited, but he's the first to admit he doesn't share his character's stratospheric IQ. He credits much of his success to the work he did at USD.

The MFA in dramatic arts program nationally recruits just seven students each year for its two-year course of graduate study in classical theater. At the centerpiece of the training is students' performance work at the Globe. By all accounts, for the lucky few who get in, it's an intense couple of years.

Globe/MFA program director Rick Seer says at first, the staff wasn't sure about accepting Parsons as one of that year's lucky few. "We had some considerations about bringing him into the program," he recalls. "Jim is a very specific personality. He's thoroughly original, which is one reason he's been so successful. But we worried, 'Does that adapt itself to classical theater, does that adapt itself to the kind of training that we're doing?' But we decided that he was so talented that we would give him a try and see how it worked out."

Parsons says he uses his grad-school training all the time. When asked to provide an example, he's quick to answer: "With breath control, there's a way of being 'on top of the text,' as they used to say in Shakespeare. It's very similar for me in this show, staying on top of it, because it will eat you alive otherwise. Sheldon doesn't make brush-off comments; I certainly couldn't improvise them. There's no faking my way through it if I get confused or lost."

That's for sure. When Penny, the hot girl across the hall, says to Sheldon, "I'm a Sagittarius, which probably tells you way more than you need to know." He replies, "Yes, 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."

And that's one of his simpler speeches.

Parsons earned his B.A. in theater at the University of Houston, but he caught the acting bug much earlier. "I got my first named role in the first grade. I was the Kolo-Kolo bird in The Elephant's Child." The role had a big effect on him: "I don't know what I'd done to make somebody think that I was the right choice out of 50 students to play a solo part.

There were no auditions. I think it was some sort of divine intervention, because looking back, it crystallized a lot of desires for me. I've known from roughly that age that that's what I wanted to do."

He continued to do theater in high school; one role that stands out in his memory was the villain Roat, who terrorizes a blind woman, in Wait Until Dark. "I had so much fun playing that evil character. It was just a wonderful experience for me because I've never had the most nefarious look." His laugh sounds suspiciously like a giggle. "As you might imagine, I'm not asked to play mean people or conniving people very often."

His training as an undergraduate gave him a good foundation as an actor. "I did set crew, I was exposed to every part of the theater: movement, voice, running crew, everything. I did a ton of plays at that time; it was a very 'Say yes' period of my life. I did The Infernal Bridegroom, Beckett, Marat/Sade, Guys and Dolls, children's theater, Sam Shepard, Shakespeare. All of that helped me to really hone in and concentrate.

It prepared me to go, after a few years, to San Diego."

Craft is something that the 36-year-old Parsons thinks about a lot, and his experiences in the master's program still resonate.

"The Shakespeare classes were three or four intensive plays in a row. It's interesting to be that submerged. I learned more about Shakespeare than I ever had in my entire life, but I just felt more prepared in general, as an actor, from it. To be fair, Shakespeare can do that anyway. I think you could just study Shakespeare and be absolutely prepared for many facets of the acting profession."

His former teacher says that Parsons' most memorable role while he was in the program was a star turn as Young Charlie in a production Seer directed of Hugh Leonard's Da. "It was during his second year, and it was a role that I had originated on Broadway 20 years earlier," he recalls. "The play was very successful; it actually won the Tony. Jim played the part that I originated in New York."

Seer laughs. "I'm sure it wasn't easy, playing the part that the director played, because I have a lot of ideas of how it should be done, and Jim and I are very different people. But in truth, I think he was much better than I was in it. He captured it beautifully, and it was not a part I would have thought he was dead-on for."

With so few students in each year's MFA class, the bond that's created is thicker than glue. "It could be a little risky, to be there all day, every day, with seven people, but for us, it seemed to work," says Parsons. "You feel very protective of the other people by the end of it. You want them to do well."

That's at least in part by design. When it came time for the class to hold showcases in Los Angeles and New York — a ritual in which each new graduate presents two scenes in front of agents and other industry insiders — the actors had to rely on one another.

"It was done in a very smart way," Parsons recalls. "You were asked to bring in scenes for other people, which did a couple of things: For one, instead of just looking for things for yourself, you had six other people looking for scenes for you. Secondly, it's so great to have somebody else's eye, going, 'No, no, no, no, no, do this. You do this really well.'"

But just putting on a show doesn't necessarily mean anyone will care, or even bother to show up. "The showcase we did in L.A. was very sparsely attended. But a week later, when it was time to go to New York, I think all of us completely packed up our stuff to move there after the showcase."

A gutsy move, but as the song says, if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere. Of course, the risks were huge: "My thinking was that I'd never done any camera work, so why would I go to L.A.? It made more sense to go where there was theater." He shakes his head and laughs. "And I did one play, ever, in New York."

The part wasn't huge — he played a secondary role in the Manhattan Ensemble Theater's off-Broadway production of The Castle, an adaptation of a Kafka novel — but the opportunity was priceless.

"The good thing about that was that I got the part, literally, within a couple weeks of being there. While it wasn't much money, it gave me a real sense of working there as an actor." And given the level of rejection most actors face, that experience helped him keep the faith.

"It's so hard. It's so discouraging. You have to really listen to the voices that are telling you you're doing a good job. Whether it's teachers or fellow students in an acting program telling you, or actually getting cast, or just having a good audition, you have got to listen." He leans back, pensive.

"You can't kick yourself over not working. I have personally felt tremendous about many, many, many auditions — and then I didn't get the part. It had little to nothing to do with what I brought. You bring who you are and what you do and that's it. You can be worth a gold mine to some people, but not to everybody."

Of course, audience members will expect Parsons to serve up at least a few gold nuggets when he speaks at this year's undergraduate commencement at USD on May 23. When asked what he's planning to talk about, he pauses for a long beat, then smiles.

"Hopefully it will be wonderful."

Getting to this point in his career — stints on shows like Judging Amy and Ed, having a memorable part in the well-received indie movie Garden State, a starring role on a hit network sitcom — took stamina. Parsons doesn't see his journey as resembling that of an overnight success. "I spent a couple of years getting little things here and there," he recalls. "Working little jobs, surviving on unemployment."

Three years went by, and then the big break came: Parsons got a pilot for Fox. But then it didn't get picked up.

Not to worry: "It gave me enough money to live on for a little while. Then I got another pilot."

Now the big break, right? "That one didn't get picked up. But it did lead to a little talent-holding deal with CBS."

Ah, finally, success! "That didn't lead to anything specific. But once again, it paid for another part of my life. Then, I was out here shooting a very small part in a movie and I got another pilot, for The Big Bang Theory. And we didn't get picked up."

Wait, this is the happy ending part, right? "Well, CBS liked it enough that they thought it should be reworked. They thought it could be made better, and I guess they were right. Johnny Galecki and me stayed on board while different people were cast and it was reworked a little bit. Then it did get picked up."

Interestingly, from Seer's perspective, Parsons' career has been on the fast track. "I remember quite clearly that he was really the star of that (New York) showcase, because he was so special. He just immediately started working, in rather high-profile projects. His career took off very quickly."

So why does Parsons recall that time of his life as being so much of a holding pattern? Seer laughs. "It probably felt like that, but in truth, seven or eight years is a relatively short amount of time to go from waiting for the phone to ring to being very successful to being 'a name,'" he says.

Parsons moved from New York to Los Angeles for The Big Bang Theory, and it turned out to be a good fit. "I'm very comfortable in L.A., because it reminds me of Houston. There's a lot of driving, and it's sprawled out, whereas New York is more condensed. For me, it's just an easier way of life."

He's fully aware of just how lucky he is. After all, there are just as many starving actors on the West Coast as the East. "My vision is rosy, because I've only lived out here while I've been working. In New York I was unemployed a lot, just sitting around and waiting. But I've been a pretty busy bee since I've lived out here, and I feel pretty comfortable anywhere that I'm working."

Even the endless driving isn't really an issue, at least not anymore. "Now that I have GPS — because I'm a fool, direction-wise — I can get around. When I first started coming out here, like five years ago, it wasn't that common to have a GPS, and I was completely reliant on maps. I would literally go seven miles in five hours if it was raining. But now I have a handy satellite thing talking to me. Life is really a lot better." Speaking of the good life, at a taping of "The Vegas Renormalization" episode, the studio audience is atwitter with excitement. They're seated in rows of straight-backed chairs on tiered risers facing a series of tall black, wheeled screens that hide the show's set from view. An enthusiastic audience-warmer urges everyone to hold hands, burst into song, compete for prizes and generally make fools of themselves.

This particular audience is eager for taping to begin, and is, in fact, on the verge of hysteria in anticipation. When the lights go down, there's a rustle of excitement that doesn't abate, even though the dimming merely signifies that the monitors hanging from the ceiling are about to show a previous episode of The Big Bang Theory. More than one person sings along with the theme song: "Our whole universe was in a hot dense state / Then nearly 14 billion years ago expansion started. Wait."

Twenty-two minutes later, the big moment has arrived. One by one, the cast members emerge from behind one of the wheeled screens.

"Kunal Nayyar as Koothrappali!" "Simon Helberg as Wolowitz!" "Kaley Cuoco as Penny!" "Jim Parsons as Sheldon!" "Johnny Galecki as Leonard!"

Sustained, wild applause. All of them seem really tiny, except for Parsons, who, at 6-foot-2, looms over his castmates. When taping begins, the screens are removed from in front of just the particular set featured in the scene, and the audience settles, more than ready to laugh.

One would think that having a live audience could be distracting for the actors, and Parsons says that in a way, that's true. "It can be. That's why I don't look out at the audience; if I start looking at them, it really distracts me. "

Not to mention the dozens of people milling about a few feet from the actors, bustling here and there with pages of new lines, wheeling back and forth with cameras and lights, scurrying in with make-up brushes and props. It's dizzying to imagine the pressure of all those people with their eyes on you, not to mention the millions out there in TV-land. "I try to run my lines while they're actually doing costume and make-up,"

Parsons says. "I figure if I can get the lines out while they're doing all of that, then I'll be OK in the scene."

But there is an energy that comes from acting in front of an audience that makes all of the hullabaloo worth it. "It makes the show better," he says. "It's so similar to doing theater in front of a live audience. When you're rehearsing, the audience is the missing character. This show has that in common with theater: You work and you work to get it as sturdy as possible and as honest as possible, and you know you're going to play in front of them, but it never fails that certain things become black and white when the audience is there."

It's fascinating to watch, this carefully choreographed ballet. The filming is done linearly, probably more for the actors than the audience.

Once each scene is good to go, a woman stands with a clapboard that digitally records a time code. Time and again, her soft voice precedes the definitive clack when she snaps it shut: "Camera A … B … C … and X.

Common mark!" Then she steps out of the way and a voice calls out, "Continuing on, and action!"

Parsons' dressing room is upstairs, just a few dozen steps from where the show is filmed. It's nice enough: overstuffed neutral furniture, some photos, a few personal mementos. He's a bit manic after the show, which isn't surprising, given the schedule that leads up to filming each week's episode.

"We start out Wednesday morning with a table read, then we stage the whole show. We usually go home pretty early that day and get rewrites that night from what they heard at the table read." So far, so good. "Then we rehearse all day on Thursday and show the writers a full run of the show that afternoon, and then they rewrite some more. Friday we do a repeat of that; we rehearse all day and then the writers and Warner Bros. and CBS all come to the Friday run-through. And then we have the weekend."

His gaze is direct, his manner, utterly charming. Parsons is one of those people with the gift of seeming like they can't think of anyplace else they'd rather be.

"For me, personally, I'm so grateful to have those weekends. I don't know how I'd memorize some of the longer passages if I didn't have that time. I really treasure having time alone to focus without being tested with a run-through. On Mondays, we come in early and stay pretty late because we stage it with the cameras and lighting and pre-tape any scenes that are technically difficult, because when you do it in front of a live audience, they can get pretty tired."

It's exhausting just hearing about it. "Tuesday we come in late, 11 or noon, and we go through the entire show again for the cameras. Then we run the show for the producers again. Then we have dinner, do the live show at 7 and tape until around 10:30."

And the next day? Get up and start the process all over again. "That day we're always like zombies, no matter how easy the taping was."

Sheldon: It's very simple. Scissors cuts paper, paper covers rock, rock crushes lizard, lizard poisons Spock, Spock smashes scissors, scissors decapitates lizard, lizard eats paper, paper disproves Spock, Spock vaporizes rock, and — as it always has — rock crushes scissors.

In spite of the distractions, Parsons can't seem to stop waxing rhapsodic about performing in front of a live audience. "It's a wonderful marriage of the theater and the camera work. The advantage is that if you mess up, you get to do it again. The disadvantage is that you still want to get it right, because things don't get any funnier the second time around."

And his character Sheldon is not only the funniest on the show, but also the one with the most complicated speeches. Which isn't all that surprising; after all, he is supposed to be an incredibly gifted physicist.

"The problem is that Sheldon is not only brilliant, but he has no social niceties to him at all, so he finds no reason to condense something for somebody. Why would the whole list of facts bore you? He thinks, 'You should probably have all of the information at your fingertips like I do,' so he goes through every excruciating step of an explanation."

His star is clearly rising, but Parsons says he's nowhere near the point where his celebrity impedes him from going about his business. "I've seen some photos of me when I was out shopping that surprised me, because I didn't know they had been taken, but that's a rare occurrence." He laughs. "Let's put it this way. I'm not getting mobbed. I sign scarce, few autographs in real life. I guess I'm pretty low on the excitement totem pole of the people you can see in L.A. right now."

He stifles a yawn. It's getting late. So he leads the way, down the stairs, single-file, through a long, nondescript hallway, past one metal door after another after another until he pulls one open to the moonlit night. His cast-mates glance up, then go back to their own business. Goodbyes are said.

Parsons turns back to his colleagues, and then takes his place among them.

Some favorite sitcoms return with new episodes by Mike Hughes

To a generation of TV viewers, Chuck Lorre already is a hero. He wrote a favorite theme song.

"I'll meet people who grew up with 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,'" Lorre says. "You can see that's a big deal for them."

Now he has a new distinction: He's bringing the first shows back from the depths of the writers' strike.

On Monday, three situation comedies have new episodes, taped post-strike: 'How I Met Your Mother' and Lorre's 'Two and a Half Men' and 'Big Bang Theory.'

Only a few others will be back in March. Some will wait until next season.

This reflects the shooting style: The CBS comedies are taped in front of an audience. That's a quick, slick method.

"We'll do a table reading and keep working on it," Lorre says. "We shoot it five days later."

When the writers' strike loomed, 'Big Bang Theory' was two days into that process, recalls series star Jim Parsons. "Chuck and Bill (Prady) said, 'Pray for a miracle, but all signs are that we're going on strike.'"

That started Nov. 5 and basically ended Feb. 13. For the studio sitcoms, life quickly returned back to normal afterward.

"We're working on the same script on the same stage where we were before," Parsons says. "It's like nothing happened."

This has been a strange year for him. Parsons was a near-unknown, working with one of the comedy leaders. "When pressed, he'll tell you a 'Roseanne' story," he says of Lorre.

Often, Lorre works with proven stars. 'Two and a Half Men' — the top comedy in the Nielsen ratings — has Jon Cryer, Holland Taylor and Charlie Sheen. The biggest change lately is that Sheen, 42, no longer plays a carefree playboy.

"We're starting to tear him apart," Lorre says. "The eternal boy is trying to grow up."

On 'Big Bang Theory,' there's no such problem: This is a show about two young physicists learning to cope with life, love and the beautiful receptionist-waitress next door.

Two roles went to familiar sitcom people — Johnny Galecki of 'Roseanne' and Kaley Cuoso of '8 Simple Rules.' Parsons, however, was a surprise.

"He just walked in and auditioned and nailed it perfectly," Lorre says. "I asked him to come back because I thought maybe he just got lucky."

It was more than that. Parsons is a good actor who also happens to be partly in sync with his character. The actual physics-babble is beyond him.

"It's real stuff," Parsons says, "and 99 percent of it means nothing to me."

Still, he has his own obsessions. (If he's not jogging before 8 a.m., he's "off for the rest of the day.") And he's lived in the world of the mind.

Parsons is 6-foot-2, towering nine inches above Galecki, but rarely tried sports.

"I don't know what it was that got me on the stage or at the piano so early," he says. "When I was 3, I crawled up on the piano bench and sorted things out."

He studied theater in his hometown at the University of Houston before landing stage roles in New York and TV guest shots in Los Angeles. In several 'Judging Amy' episodes, Parsons played Rob Holbrook. Then came 'Big Bang Theory' and his ideal job.

"I was a huge fan of sitcoms, growing up," he says. "It just feels like home to me."

It's the sitcom style that has worked from 'I Love Lucy' to 'Seinfeld': Read a script, wait for changes, then step in front of an audience. It is all pleasant enough.

"Some of the time, we'll have a four-hour day or a five-hour day," Parsons says.

And it allowed for a quick comeback from the TV strike.