Parsons was named as one of the Pride class of 2019 at the Power of Pride event, which celebrated 'Variety’s LGBTQ-focused issue.
Five weeks after The Big Bang Theory’s finale, Jim Parsons says it hasn’t yet hit him that he won’t be returning to the show’s set in September and dishes that the tight-knit cast is still texting about “stupid day-to-day stuff.”
“We're not talking about anything out of the ordinary yet!” Parsons told ET at the Variety and Mercedes-Benz Power of Pride event in New York City on Monday. “We're still texting about stupid day-to-day stuff, and that's another thing that will be interesting as time goes by. It’s like anything else in life when you can't imagine how it's going to be until you get there.”
Parsons, 46, said the end of the CBS series will likely dawn on him in the fall, when he would have usually gone back to work.
“It hasn't really hit me yet, completely, that it's over. Mostly because the way our schedule worked for 12 years, this was an actual break that we had,” he said, referring to the show’s summer filming hiatus. “I'm looking forward to September where I'd normally be working and we'd start airing. That's when I think certain things will start hitting me.”
Parsons added that so far, he has no plans for his now-free September, which feels “crazy.”
Reflecting on how the show wrapped up after 12 seasons, Parsons said he couldn’t have been more satisfied.
“It ended in the way that I hoped it would in that it felt right,” he explained. “There were probably a million different ways it could feel right. I would talk with some of the writers and I know as they were writing it they were nervous. I said, ‘It's the finale, you can't get it completely right. Someone's gonna hate it.’ But I don't think that was actually the case with this, which was really sweet. I think it wrapped up in the right way.”
As part of the Power of Pride event, which celebrated Variety’s inaugural issue recognizing the LGBTQ community, Parsons was named as one of the Pride class of 2019, alongside Billy Eichner, Mj Rodriguez and Hannah Gadsby.
“It’s such an honor to be chosen to be some sort of visible representation of what Pride is, because it's sort of an elusive thing, so it means something different to everybody,” said Parsons, who came out publicly in 2012 and is now married to Todd Spiewak. “Pride to me is feeling comfortable in who I am, confident in who I am -- even on days when I don't feel personally confident to go out into the world, there's that underlying thing of, ‘I'm OK being who I am and going out and doing what I need to do.’”
“As time is going on, I feel like the Pride banner is inclusive of more and more people and it's a very evolving spirit that includes more people now than 20 years ago,” he continued. “And, that's a beautiful thing, and an inspiring thing and important.”
Pride is a major theme of Parsons' next project, Netflix’s adaptation of the Broadway production, The Boys in the Band, which will see him relocate from Los Angeles to New York.
Parsons was part of the Broadway show and will reunite with his former co-stars for Netflix’s movie version, which is being directed by Ryan Murphy and is said to feature one of the largest number of openly gay actors in a film.
“It's not a small deal to have that many out, gay actors all in the same production together,” Parsons said. “That's pretty amazing.”
See more on Parsons and The Big Bang Theory below.
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