Jim Parson Reveals How He'd Jokingly Annoy Rihanna While Working Together on 'Home'

Jim Parsons
Jim Parsons |

Actor Jim Parson's alter-ego in the hit television show The Big Bang Theory Dr. Sheldon Cooper is downright annoying to his roommate Leonard, his girlfriend Penny and the rest of their friends Howard, Raj, and Bernadette. The only character in the show who overlooks his social faux pas and adores him nonetheless is Sheldon's genius girlfriend Amy.

But in real life, Parsons seems very funny, charming, in articulate. It then came as a surprise when he appeared in The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and told the talk show host that he managed to annoy his Home co-star Rihanna.

"I've been doing press with Steve Martin and Rihanna and I, being around her, her songs keep coming into my head and I keep saying, like, 'Yellow diamonds in...' I mean, just out of nowhere I'll be doing it," he shared.

Parsons said that he meant the singing as a "compliment" but realized just how annoying it truly was. "I thought... this might be really irritating. Like, what if she was doing 'bazinga' (a word Sheldon popularized in The Big Bang Theory) the whole time we were doing press, and I'd go, 'Would you shut up?'" he laughingly said.

But the Barbados singer was nice enough not to tell Parsons to "shut up" even if she was not thrilled with Parsons for singing her songs in front of her.

"Her reaction is always...she'll look at me and she goes, 'That gives me chills,' and not in a good way. Like, please stop," said Parsons.

The actor compared his purple alien character from DreamWorks Animation's Home to the character of Sheldon, and said that they are actually very similar.

"Both of them have this stranger in a strange land quality. Both characters are trying to figure out the world around them, the difference being that one isn't sure he even cares to figure it out, the other one is so eager to do that," he told Digital Spy.

Parsons also that The Big Bang Theory was a "glorious surprise" since a lot of people loved the show, but at the same time it was a nice break to be playing a more likable character in Home.

"You have no idea, the heaven it was to come from playing someone sort of anti-social, to someone who kind of wants to embrace everyone and wants to be loved. It was like a whole new set of muscles you hadn't stretched in a while," he said.