Jim Parsons on the new LGBTQ love story 'Spoiler Alert' and his bumpy exit from 'The Big Bang Theory': 'I was doing what I had to do'

Yahoo! News ^ | Fri, December 2, 2022 | Ethan Alter

[nickcarraway]

Earlier this year, the Universal-backed Bros hoped to go where no major studio comedy had gone before by becoming the first LGBTQ rom-com starring two out gay actors — Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane — to top the box office charts. Despite critical acclaim and sold-out screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival, though, the movie had to settle for fourth place during its opening weekend and a cumulative gross just shy of $15 million.

Eichner — who also wrote the movie — didn't shy away from expressing his disappointment in interviews and on social media. In a since-deleted Twitter post, he suggested that "straight people... just didn't show up for Bros," potentially contributing to the film's financial woes. (Some conservative commentators made similar arguments after Walt Disney's new animated adventure, Strange World — which featured out gay comedian, Jaboukie Young-White, as the company's first out gay teenager — underperformed in its opening weekend, reportedly costing Disney upwards of $100 million.)

Flash-forward a few months, and Universal's specialty label, Focus Features, is releasing its own LGBTQ love story with out gay actors front and center: Spoiler Alert, produced by and starring former Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons. Based on the memoir by TV journalist, Michael Ausiello, the movie strikes a very different tone than the proudly raunchy R-rated Bros, recounting the story of Ausiello's romance with his husband, Kit Cowan (played by Ben Aldridge), from their first meet-cute in 2002 to Cowan's death from cancer in 2015. It's a sweet, funny and sad love story in the tradition of past heteronormative hits like... well, Love Story — with a dash of Terms of Endearment thrown in via the presence of Kit's loving parents, played by Bill Irwin and Sally Field.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

“Sheldon Cooper wasn’t interested in sex, or ‘coitus’ as he routinely called it. I think that is considered more asexual, not homosexual. The character fancied himself more of a Spock in thought process, and definitely displayed some form of social disorder like Aspergers or something similar.

Correct. Raj and Howard (two of the “straight” characters) were much more effeminate than Sheldon, so much so that other characters thought they might be a gay couple.

[jurroppi1]

NVM, I figured it out. What a strange turn of phrase though.

[Sirius Lee]

heteronormative

Because heterosexuality is normal. Everything else is an abomination. And that's not just my opinion.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

You can’t discount Leonard’s eventual success with Penny, whose previous relationships had been sexual flings with hunky dudes and skate rats who were likely not all that bright.

I remember one funny episode in which Penny accompanied Sheldon and Amy on a date, and the latter two computed the approximate number of Penny’s sexual flings per year, which came out to about 27 or 28. Amy then asked Penny, very seriously, “Penny, are you a slut?” The whole bit was as funny as you-know-what.

[Leaning Right]

> In the early episodes Sheldon expressed a great deal of sexual interest in Penny. <

Back then I actually thought the series would end with Sheldon marrying Penny. Then Leonard got in the way, and the rest is history.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I still remember the episode in which Sheldon got his butt kicked by Penny in a video game that she was playing for the first time.

[Bernard]

When I saw the opening weekend boxoffice for that movie and read the articles about the actor complaining, my first thought was that "every homosexual who goes to a theater to see a movie went to see that movie, and that's about it. Nobody else wanted to spend the money to sit in a theater to see it."

A large percentage of the population in this country has been conditioned by the Fauci lockdowns to change their behavior. At least on a long-term basis, if not forever.

[enumerated]

None of you have very good ‘gaydar’.

The Sheldon character definitely had all the gay behavior - the gay walk, the slight lisp, the feminine eye rolling, the flamboyant poses and limp hand gestures.

Then, of course, there is the fact that the actor IS gay.

If the producers really wanted the Sheldon character to be straight, why pick an obvious gay person for the part, and then instruct him to go ahead and act gay?

What more do you need? He was gay.

Your ‘gaydar’ sucks, that’s all.

[gundog]

Sheldon and Amy were a couple...Shamy.

[suthener]

“What the Woke/LGBTQ community cannot comprehend is that the revulsion towards homosexuality is ingrained in humans”

I agree. A man keeping his private parts away from other men, and their private parts away from him, is a base instinct of normal men. When I see these surveys about how many young people claim to be bisexual or homosexual I want to see how many would claim to have actually participated in these activities, especially men. I strongly suspect the numbers would be significantly lower.

[bgill]

The not gay Sheldon character married a female.

[bgill]

The not gay Sheldon character married a female.

[enumerated]

I thought everyone knew about Hollywood’s not-so-hidden agenda - to normalize homosexual behavior by casting homosexuals in supposedly straight roles.

The idea is to blur the boundaries between normal behavior and deviant behavior, and thus make impressionable people (especially children) unable to see the distinction.

It’s easier to indoctrinate people and affect change when people can no longer see the difference - they can no longer see what is changing.

I thought FReepers, at least, knew how the Left operates. I guess not.

So, thanks to The Big Bang Theory, and so many other shows, lots of impressionable children will grow up thinking it’s normal to act like a homo.

[Reily]

Acting & “the arts” in general have always been oversupplied with gays.

[Clemenza]

Not a surprise to me - he was as like Dick Sargent on Bewitched - “playing straight” but I was not really surprised when he came out - ditto George Michael.

[Jim Noble]

Gaslighting only goes so far.

[enumerated]

That’s true.

[Albion Wilde]

bump (you should excuse the expression here)

[Reily]

I found their portrayal of “science nerds” off putting!

Same here family (wife), friends liked it!

[gundog]

Some guys are like Sheldon. We had a couple of guys in high school that everyone called fags, because every high school has guys that they call fags. They weren’t. Decades later, I saw one of them, washing his car. I busted out laughing. and when I got home, related the story to the neighbor and his girlfriend. Turns out she knew the guy, and when I suggested that he was gay, she became nearly livid. I thought she might hit me. Finally. I relented, and said “OK...maybe he’s not gay. But he’s not doing himself any favors by growing a pornstar mustache, and washing his car wearing a white tank-top and Daisy Duke cut-offs.”

There was a guy in our class that would die of AIDS in the ‘80s. Nice guy. Spent a lot of time with some of the prettiest girls in class. Nobody thought he was gay. Personally, I always suspect the guys that go out of their way to spend a lot of time showering with other guys...the football team, in particular.