Jim Parsons Finally Reveals Why He Decided To Quit The Big Bang Theory
It was heartbreaking for a huge set of people when the makers of the hit TV show announced that they won't be returning after the twelfth season. It was Jim, who decided to quit the show and the writers were very clear that even if one cast member decided to leave, they will pull the plug on the show.
The character of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory will always remain one of the strong highlights on Jim Parsons' impressive resume. The actor played it for more than a decade and to say that he aced it, would be an understatement. It was heartbreaking for a huge set of people when the makers of the hit TV show announced that they won't be returning after the twelfth season. It was Jim, who decided to quit the show and the writers were very clear that even if one cast member decided to leave, they will pull the plug on the show. It's been more than one year that the final episode of The Big Bang Theory aired on TV. In a recent interview, Jim has addressed his exit from the show that led to it ending for good.
Recently appearing on the David Tennant Does a Podcast With…, Parsons shared that he felt "exhausted". The Emmy award-winning actor said, “It was a complicated road, as you could imagine," and that he "kind of had a suspicion" in his heart that he was going to leave when he signed to continue playing Sheldon in seasons 11 and 12 of the comedy. The exhaustion that Jim talked about came due to the combination of work pressure and a series of incidents in his personal life. Ryan Murphy Reveals That He Signed Jim Parsons For Hollywood So That He Could Leave Sheldon Behind.
After wrapping up the 11th season of TBBT, Jim moved to New York to appear in The Boys In The Band on Broadway. On one Sunday, as he was leaving to shoot for a commercial for Intel, one of his beloved dogs became "gravely ill". Talking about that day, Jim told David Tennant, "He just looked so bad and I was so tired and I just started crying. I was like, ‘This dog’s going to die while I’m off working and I feel so bad.' " He ended up going to shoot, but the same night the dog had a seizure and Jim and his husband Todd Spiewak made the difficult decision to put their pet out of its pain. “It was the scariest moment for the next couple of days because I felt like I was at the edge of a cliff," Parsons said adding that, "I was teetering and I saw something really dark below.” It was at that point, that he had a moment of "clarity."
"I had this moment of clarity that I think you’re very fortunate to get in a lot of ways, of going, ‘Don’t keep speeding by.' You know? ‘Use this time to take a look around.’ And I did. I was like, ‘I gotta make a move,'" said Parsons, who told Big Bang writers Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro that he needed to try other things, and then we know what happened. Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end and so they did. We can never imagine anyone else as Sheldon.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 12, 2020 11:35 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).