How Jim Parsons Got Good at Playing Bad
Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterIt’s not easy outrunning an outsized character like Sheldon Cooper, the awkward theoretical physicist played by Jim Parsons for 12 seasons on the ratings hit “The Big Bang Theory.”But only a year after the May 2019 finale of the sitcom, Parsons delivered two breakout dramatic performances that no primetime CBS viewer would recognize — a cruel summer of sorts — playing a monstrous talent agent in Ryan Murphy’s “Hollywood” in May, and a malignant, self-loathing ’60s gay man in Joe Mantello’s “Boys in the Band” in September.With both programs airing on Netflix, Parsons was restricted neither by broadcast standards nor audience expectations.