Iain Armitage, Jim Parsons talk Sheldon Cooper as ‘Young Sheldon’ season 2 goes forward
The Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons has made Sheldon Cooper a household name with an Award-winning performance of the quirky California physicist from Texas. Now the spin-off, Young Sheldon is finding an audience with Iain Armitage starring as the young version of Cooper.
“I love that he’s smart, obviously. He is an interesting character, and not exactly hard to play, but he isn’t easy, either,” Armitage says of Cooper during the interview with Parade. “You have to think totally different, because he’s this incredibly smart kid, and I’m not. It’s like a maze that you know how to get to the end, but it all kind of looks the same, so you still have to navigate.”
Parsons has heaped praise on the youngster’s performance.
“From the very start, and it’s the reason Iain’s playing this part is, he understood what he’s reading as soon as he reads it. Maybe he doesn’t think he does, but some little spirit inside him does, because that’s what comes out. The conversations we had were much more about Sheldon’s peculiar view of the world, at times, and how unnatural that can be.
The easiest example is always when Sheldon doesn’t understand why something is funny. He doesn’t get sarcasm. It’s like that can take a minute, but once Iain hears that, he understands it.”
Parsons provides narration for Young Sheldon, guiding the audience through the prequel, the on-screen version of characters only talked about on Big Bang.
“I’ve never done anything like that. It’s very fun when we put them together, though. The most fun is when they’re almost finished episodes because then we can really time it to the scenes right as it’s happening. It makes me laugh a lot of the time.”
CBS renewed Young Sheldon earlier this month after its big ratings debut.
“Young Sheldon is the #1 new comedy in viewers (16.17 million in most recent ratings) and adults 18-49 (3.3), and is the #2 comedy on television, behind only mothership The Big Bang Theory,” Deadline noted at the time.
Young Sheldon airs Thursday nights at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
Season 11 of The Big Bang Theory began in September, but season 12 may be the end of the popular comedy despite remarks by CBS chief executive Les Moonves that it will carry one, at least to a season 13.