Jim Parsons had a very specific process for learning his lines on The Big Bang Theory

to For 12 seasons and as many years, Jim Parsons played the stubborn genius scientist Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. – And according to the series’ oral history, Parsons had truly A unique process when it comes to learning Sheldon’s long and very specific monologues and speeches.

In Jessica Radloff’s 2022 book The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive Inside Story of an Epic Series of Events, Showrunner and creator Chuck Lorre told the author that Parsons was always fully prepared to perform. “Jim’s operation was going to be very set up,” Lowry recalls. “He made all his decisions the night before the table reading how he was going to read his script.”

Parsons confirmed that he had already prepared completely A lot while playing Sheldon. “I really loved taking the time and staying home on the weekends and repeating those words,” Parsons said. He continued:

“It brought me a lot of joy and pride because I was able to use these multi-syllabic words that they were giving me and still explore the comedic beats that they put in there. I loved the opportunity to solve that puzzle. I’m not saying that I won’t get tired and old in the future.” stage, but overall, I really loved it and it was a joy to be able to go into pre-tape day and show night with that level of confidence behind me that knew what I was doing. This is a place that will remind me of a sporting event like nothing else I would have liked In which I would be ready to nail the triple Axel when it came time to skate for the gold medal.

There’s something Parsons doesn’t say here, Despite that… he wrote everyone Write down his lines on note cards and paste them throughout the group in case you forget anything.

It’s understandable that Jim Parsons wanted to make sure he remembered some of Sheldon’s more complex lines – and it’s also funny that the set was apparently covered in handwritten note cards with his lines on them. according to Kevin Sussman, who almost played Howard Wolowitz on the series before landing the role of comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Howard, of course, was played by Simon Helberg in the finale), and Parsons was never without his enormous collection of index cards.

“When people talk about what Jim was like on set…while he had a lot of fun, he was the one who did the most work,” Sussman told Jessica Radloff in the book. “Every episode he would have these ridiculous monologues with all these jargon, and a lot of what I remember about hanging out on set — which was mostly like hanging out with your friends at summer camp — Jim was constantly walking around with a big stack of index cards going over his lines. I’m thinking to myself, “Holy cow, he does this every episode.”.’“

Kaley Cuoco, who played Sheldon’s neighbor turned best friend Penny, couldn’t believe how well Parsons memorized his lines. As she told Radloff, “Jim was always writing all One line of writing on note cards, which blew my mind. “You’ll open a drawer in the collection and there will be note cards.”

Frankly, the idea of ​​putting lines on note cards that he can study between takes — or even use surreptitiously while filming a shot — is kind of cool, but as Jim Parsons also reveals in Jessica Radloff’s book, a certain type of scene allowed him to… Cheating the system even more (so to speak). “There wasn’t a set piece that didn’t have my scripts or my note cards on it. Now, it was rare that I was able to use it during a scene; it was always just a reference between takes,” Parsons began, previously saying his real trick was using a notepad whenever possible that.

You see, as a man of science, it’s possible that Sheldon was carrying a notebook with equations or something (I’m not a scientist, so I can only assume), which allowed Parsons to just…hide his lines in there. “But oh, how I loved the notebook!” Parsons saw. “It was very rare that I had a scene where it made sense for me to be with a diary, but to know that you’re walking into a scene where you can see your lines the whole time…what a luxury! That’s a whole other style of acting! Maybe! It’s not called acting, I’m not sure about that, but I loved it.

Jim Parsons’ process on “The Big Bang Theory” was obviously pretty intense — with all the notebooks and index cards — but sometimes, he ran into trouble. After writing all his lines on his favorite index cards for any given scene, sometimes the lines themselves are too It changesand in Jessica Radloff’s book, Parsons admitted that he really hated these sudden changes in the text, and even mentioned a specific example of a time when he felt intimidated by an edit.

“It bothered me a few times because it was annoying to have to work on something for a long time and then have it change,” Parsons admitted. “It seems very childish in retrospect, but it was my honest reaction. There was one instance in particular where they changed my stuff before we took the photo. I went down, and I lost my mind. I really did. Now what does that mean, exactly?” I don’t know, we did the show, but for me, I was so angry, I almost cried in a weird way, because I was digging these lines. They had the director say, “Okay, we’re going to cut this, and we’re going to change that.” I was like, ‘Wait, aren’t we going to hear that first?!'”

Parsons also admitted that this didn’t happen very often and that he trusted the writers to always make sure the scripts were as perfect as possible, but he still…didn’t really like it. “But it was rare that you would get changes…most of the time, it was really exciting because their changes would be really good, and you had something new to offer a studio audience that had already seen the scene many times.” The actor said. “And that was really fun… when it wasn’t frustrating.”

“The Big Bang Theory” is streaming on Max now.