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Though Parsons continued to narrate “Young Sheldon,” he wasn’t ready to play Sheldon on camera again so soon after “The Big Bang Theory” ended.
“Not because I didn’t like him or like playing it, but it just felt wrong to me, somehow, in my heart after those 12 years, and after the finale of that show, and all of us finishing it together,” Parsons explains in the book. “Maybe that sounds overly precious, but I was really following my heart.”
Executive producer Steve Holland recalls that Parsons’ initial response was positive: “He thought the scene was beautiful, and he was definitely interested in being a part of it.” And that made the eventual pass harder to take: “We also didn’t get a ‘no’ right off the bat from him. If we would have, it almost would have been easier… because we got so close.”
The invitation to return for the series finale, three years later, ultimately felt different for Parsons: “It was a very big moment in something I was personally part of creating or in the beginning stages of. Because of that, if I was ever going to put on those clothes again, it would be a moment like that. And in fact, it even made me feel like, this is the final time I’m ever going to do it, because this is a beautiful coda on the end of a journey I got to go on. Now I just get to come back and give one last look from a different angle and really say goodbye one more time. That felt right. “
Barber, who learned about the proposed scene during his interview for the book, respects Parsons’ decision, having wrestled with similar concerns about reprising George Sr. on the “Young Sheldon” spin-off, “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.”
“It’s a similar thought process,” he says. “As an actor, I totally respect the consideration of your legacy for the character and the pitfalls of revisiting it, and cheapening it in any way.”
Still, Holland wishes viewers could have seen the scene they had planned for Parsons and Barber.
“It wasn’t just an older Sheldon; it was Jim as Adult Sheldon, actually getting to spend a few more minutes with his dad,” he says, his voice breaking, according to the book. “And, yeah… it was really special to us.”