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Jim Parsons’ portrayal of Sheldon Cooper was truly phenomenal. Parsons embodied the character in a way that left fans believing that any other actor would have paled in comparison. The actor’s stellar portrayal of Sheldon even earned him an astounding four Prime Time Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. Evidently, Parsons was the right pick for this particular role.
Nonetheless, the Hidden Figures actor was not the preferred candidate for the role, with The Big Bang Theory creators initially offering the role to his co-star Johnny Galecki. In addition, Parsons had to wait several hours to hear back from The Big Bang Theory creators after his audition. So, why did Jim Parsons have to endure such a long wait after his Sheldon Cooper audition?
Jim Parsons Knew Instantly That The Big Bang Theory Would Be Something Special
While Parsons had auditioned for multiple roles in the past, none of them had seemed as important as Sheldon Cooper. It’s almost as if the actor instinctively knew that the role would catapult him to an unprecedented level of success.
“The only thing I remember is that when I read it, I remember thinking, ‘This is important.’ I mean I always work on my auditions, but I don't know. I felt something special,” Parsons told Vanity Fair in 2020. “And I remember the Oscars were gonna be on that night, and I was invited to like a party and I said, ‘I'm not going.’ And I stayed home and read out my lines and worked on my lines.”
The 49-year-old took extra care to ensure he was thoroughly prepped for his audition.
“I worked my ass off on it! You have no idea how well memorized I was,” he disclosed to The Hollywood Reporter. “Sheldon has so much to say sometimes — it's not as bad as it used to be — and it was really dense, and it was clear to me that the humor that was built into this was only if these dense pieces flowed very easily. I drilled the shit out of it! I was very scared — and excited to present it to them.”
Jim Parsons Endured A Long Wait After His Sheldon Cooper Audition
Despite being unbelievably anxious, Jim Parsons showed up to his Sheldon Cooper audition prepared to give the performance of a lifetime. “I went in, and I auditioned, and I knew it had gone well. A few days later they called me back to do the test for like the network and the studio, or whatever,” Parsons told Vanity Fair. “And I thought that had gone well. I knew it had gone well. I did what I wanted to do, and I could tell it had gone well.”
Despite the auditions going remarkably well, Parsons still had to wait for several hours to hear back from The Big Bang Theory’s casting team after his final audition.
“Normally any other pilots I have been cast in, my phone had rung literally while I was walking to the car from the audition,” he explained. “This was hours. It was hours. And my agent at the time I remember calling, and he said, ‘What happened today?’ And I said, ‘Oh God, what do you mean?’ He goes, ‘I'm just kidding. You got it.’”
The Big Bang Theory Creators Could Not Decide Whether Jim Parsons Was The Right Fit For Sheldon Cooper
The Big Bang Theory creators, Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, had a hard time deciding whether to cast Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper. Following Parsons’ mind-blowing audition, Bill Prady was convinced that he was the right man for the job.
“When Jim Parsons came in, he was Sheldon on a level,” Bill Prady told the At Home with the Creative Coalition podcast. “Jim came in, and he was just — from that audition, he was the Sheldon that you saw on television. He created that character at that audition."
However, co-creator Chuck Lorre was not as optimistic. “[Parsons] left the room and I turned and I went, 'That's the guy! That's the guy! That's the guy!' And Chuck turned, and he said, 'Nah, he's gonna break your heart. He'll never give you that performance again.'"
Fortunately, Bill Prady decided to give Parsons yet another opportunity to prove his worth. "I have to say, in the story of my relationship with Chuck, the number of times that I'm right and Chuck is wrong may be... I'm gonna go with one," Prady said. "This may be the only example of where I actually was right.”
