Hollywood star Jim Parsons on his creepy role in Netflix series and life after The Big Bang Theory

In his first major role since ‘Big Bang’ ended last May, Parsons plays a sleazy and corrupt talent agent who demands sexual favours from handsome young actors

‘He was such a complicated, colourful, outlandish character, and despicable in many ways,’ Parson says of his Hollywood character Henry Willson

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Jim Parsons plays Henry Willson, a creepy and corrupt talent agent, in the new Netflix series Hollywood. Photo: Netflix

Published: 4:00am, 13 May 2020Updated: 5:02am, 13 May 2020

After Hollywood, Jim Parsons shouldn’t have any fear about being typecast as Sheldon Cooper.

Four-time Emmy winner Parsons, who played the cranky, finicky genius for 12 seasons on hit CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory, takes on an entirely different character – physically, psychologically and morally – in Netflix’s Hollywood (now streaming), his first major role since Big Bang ended last May.

For Parsons’ jaw-dropping introductory scene as sleazy talent agent Henry Willson, an act of brutal psychological and physical aggression, naive Sheldon might want to avert his eyes.

The seven-episode limited series from producers Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan and Janet Mock embraces the elegance and mystery of the film industry’s post-World War II golden era while imagining an alternate ending in which women, people of colour, the LGBT community and others who had been marginalised get the leading roles, literally and figuratively, that many are still being denied.

Parsons’ part in the Netflix series could not be further from his award-winning role as science boffin Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory. Photo: CBS via Getty Images

Hollywood, which also stars Patti LuPone, Dylan McDermott and Darren Criss, features fictional characters and real-life icons, including Rock Hudson (played by Jake Picking), Hattie McDaniel (Queen Latifah) and Anna May Wong (Michelle Krusiec), whom Murphy feels were wronged.