“Sympathy for this little guy”: When Jim Parsons revealed how he felt watching Iain Armitage play his character in Young Sheldon

In 2017, Iain Armitage debuted the role of child Sheldon Cooper in Young Sheldon. The character was already quite popular among the audience as Jim Parsons was playing the older version of Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory.

Armitage had big shoes to fill, thanks to the iconic performance of Parsons, and the young actor did exceptionally well in the role, creating his own identity along the way.

When Young Sheldon premiered in September 2017, Parsons had an interview with Entertainment Weekly, where he revealed he was moved by Armitage’s performance as the younger version of his character:

“Watching Iain bring this young version of this character to life that I’ve been working on for a decade of my own life, it was really moving. I felt such a sympathy for this little guy. It was kind of mind-blowing to see him brought to life through Iain.”

Jim Parsons once revealed he was moved by Iain Armitage’s performance in Young Sheldon

Jim Parsons voiced the older Sheldon Cooper in Young Sheldon and served as the series' narrator. He also worked as an executive producer on the project and was a part of the audition process to find the perfect child actor who could play the younger version of the genius.

After Armitage was selected to play the character and started working on the show, Parsons stated his mind was blown by the child actor's talent. In his interview, he highlighted how watching Armitage’s act made him reflect on his own work:

“I don’t think I’ve forgotten how much fun everything is, but maybe a little bit, because it definitely feels like a reminder of something when I watch you [Iain] work on all this stuff and do all this stuff.”

Further talking about how Young Sheldon was different from its predecessor, The Big Bang Theory, Parsons said:

“If you didn’t know Big Bang at all, you could watch this show on its own. It’s a family with three kids, one of which is very special. It’s really an origin story, and it’s a bit of a memory play in that way too.”

Parsons played the lead role of Sheldon Cooper, a genius experimental physicist, across all 12 seasons of TBBT from 2007 to 2019. In 2016, the creators came up with an idea to create a spin-off series based on the physicist’s childhood days and family, and hence, Young Sheldon went into development.

The spin-off went on to carve its own niche among the audience as it was tonally different from the original series and focused more on familial themes, which was appreciated by the fans. The show concluded in 2024 and paved the way for another spin-off, Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage.

Apart from Jim Parsons, TBBT also starred Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter, Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitz, Kaley Cuoco as Penny, Kunal Nayyar as Rajesh Koothrappali, Mayim Bialik as Amy Farrah Fowler, Melissa Rauch as Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, and Kevin Sussman as Stuart Bloom.

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On the other hand, Young Sheldon’s cast included Iain Armitage, Zoe Perry, Montana Jordan, Annie Potts, Raegan Revord, Lance Barber, Matt Hobby, Emily Osment, and Wyatt McClure. TBBT was created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, while the spin-off was created by Lorre along with Steven Molaro.

Both TBBT and Young Sheldon are available to stream on Max.

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