Jim Parsons On Playing Henry Wilson In Netflix’s Hollywood: “It Changed Me In Some Way”
He also revealed that he wants to thank Ryan Murphy for the role because it was “one of the most fun, creative, fulfilling jobs I’ve gotten to do in a long time”
Jim Parsons On Playing Henry Wilson In Netflix’s Hollywood; “ It Changed Me In Some Way.”
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Who doesn’t know Jim Parsons? The popular actor has won several hearts from the portrayal of his character Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. We just saw him in the Netflix series Hollywood.
Jim was seen playing the role of the predatory agent in the show. Parsons has been nominated for an Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance as Henry Wilson.
Jim feels his portrayal of Henry Wilson, a real-life figure who was one of Hollywood’s most prominent agents in the 1940s but also a closeted gay man has changed him as a person. Read on to know what made him feel this way.
After Jim Parsons was offered this show, he spoke to Deadline. He revealed his conversation with Ryan Murphy when he offered The Bing Bang Theory actor the show Hollywood. The actor said, “What was funny is he goes, ‘It’s a great character. Something you haven’t played before, blah, blah, blah,’ and I was like, ‘OK.’ He goes, ‘I’m going to give you the first couple of episodes to read. We’re still polishing.’ So, he didn’t send them immediately, but I remember going home and talking to my husband about it.”
Parsons read the scripts for Hollywood having never heard of Wilson before, but he was immediately excited by the prospect of playing a real person. His interpretation was based on Robert Hofler’s book, The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson, which he described as his Bible.
Talking about the intimate scenes, Jim Parsons said, “I haven’t played a lot of sex scenes in my career, so it’s not something I was used to. I don’t even know if you would get used to it, so much. But it was funny the way the shoot went on long enough, and I had enough scenes with him, and like I say, I had a really good relationship with him, so that by the time we got to doing the stuff where we were in bed together after I was dancing for him and draping myself over him, it was so nice, the way that turned into a really fun thing to explore.”
Parsons said the scenes had a “ridiculous aspect” to them, but he felt like he had an acting partner with whom they weren’t too “horrifying and uncomfortable”. They were also like two actors, in a playground, seeing what happened when you explored this kind of human transaction.
Jim also revealed that he wants to thank Ryan Murphy for the role because it was “one of the most fun, creative, fulfilling jobs I’ve gotten to do in a long time”.
The role was a “gift” which changed his own internal trajectory as an actor and where he was heading. He said of the role and Hollywood itself: “Without being too dramatic about it. I felt at the time, and I still feel now that [they] changed me in some way.”
Have you seen Hollywood yet? Did you enjoy Jim Parsons character?
