Sheldon Cooper actor Jim Parsons speaks for first time since wedding about new Young Sheldon show

Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper is set to get his own spin-off show.

Young Sheldon will follow the life of a boy Sheldon Cooper as he grows up in deepest Texas.

And Jim Parsons, the world’s highest paid gay actor, is set to star in the show as its narrator.

Parsons, who married his long-term boyfriend in a stunning ceremony last week, has now spoken for the first time about the project.

The show will follow him battling with his right-wing family, long before he finds the freedom of geekery and his Big Bang Theory friends.

He praised the actor behind the character’s younger self, Iain Armitage.

He told ET Online: “We saw lots and lots of tapes and we saw lots of auditions and there’s something about Iain that just popped immediately,” Parsons told the channel.

“There was no denying it as soon as you saw his face and he handles the language well and he memorises easily, and the biggest thing of all is he’s just an excellent actor. I don’t know how someone so young acts so well.

“I didn’t when I was his age, but he does.”

Armitige, who previously starred in Big Little Lies, revealed what it’s like to work with Parsons, saying: “We sort of buddied together and sometimes it would range from stuff like, ‘Say this line a little differently because Sheldon would think of it differently.’ ‘Don’t smile,’” the child actor revealed.

“He really didn’t need very much help,” Parsons added.

“In some ways, he’s too good of an actor, at first blush, with the material.

“He’s listening too well. He’s being too empathetic, which is really good acting but not in this case.

“There were just a couple things you had to curb, like, ‘I know you want to laugh and smile and be nice to people [but] don’t do that anymore!’”

The new show is set to air on CBS in mid-September.

It comes after the cast of the original show offered to take a pay cut to increase the pay of two female colleagues.

It’s been revealed its five biggest stars have offered to take a pay cut of $100,000 an episode – so that two female stars can increase their salaries.

The five originals – Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg – have agreed to their salaries being lowered.

It should mean that female co-stars Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch, who joined in the third series of the hit show, will get a raise in their pay.

Jim Parsons is thought to be the highest paid gay actor in the world, raking in $1m an episode.

Their million dollar an episode salaries are now as high as Friends, where the cast also negotiated to get each other’s salaries increased.

• Nov 29 2023

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