Inside Jim Parsons' Relationship With His Mom, Judy

Jim Parsons' role as Sheldon Cooper on "The Big Bang Theory" is up there in distinction with characters like Homer Simpson and Walter White. One of the sitcom's co-creators, Bill Prady, said on the "At Home with the Creative Coalition" podcast that Jim was perfect from his first audition. His audition was so astounding that Prady's partner Chuck Lorre was convinced Jim would never be able to do it again; he proved Lorre wrong when he returned and gave them the same performance. 

However perfect Jim was for the role, his acting career almost never happened, thanks to his mom. In an interview with Judy Parsons for the book "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series," Judy admitted that she was tentative about the idea of her son pursuing acting. "As much as I hate to say it — I did not want him to major in theater," she said. Coming from a middle-class family, Judy worried her son wouldn't find stability in such a competitive industry. 

Fortunately for "TBBT" fans, Jim went with his instincts. After 12 seasons of public adoration for Sheldon — and consequently Jim — Judy was pretty much on board with the acting career. According to the star, his mom was practically more upset by the show's ending than he was. 

Coming to terms with her son's career was seemingly a cakewalk for Judy Parsons, compared to grappling with his sexuality. In 2012, Jim Parsons publicly came out as gay in an interview with The New York Times. The actor avoided talking about his sexuality while on "The Big Bang Theory" and only mentioned it offhandedly during the interview. The brevity with which the article revealed his sexuality to the world was unlike the way Jim came out to his mother, which was more difficult at first. 

Jim explained on the "HFPA in Conversation" podcast that he told his mom about his sexuality a couple of years after his father died in a car accident in 2001, so she was already in a fragile emotional state. Jim said hearing about his sexuality shook his mother because she worried about how hard his life might be as an out gay man. "I think that was really hard for her to hear, to officially hear that her own son was going to claim [his homosexuality]," Jim said. 

It was his now-husband, Todd Spiewak, who motivated Jim to come out to his family. "To not let them in on this person I had met was to officially start putting up these lifelong barriers," he told Variety. He didn't want that distance between them, so Jim opened up to his mother in order to let her into the happy life he'd built. Given that Judy proudly stood next to her son and Spiewak during Jim's Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony in 2015, it seems safe to say she's come a long way in accepting him.