4 time Emmy winner Jim Parsons is not just known for playing Sheldon Cooper

Jim Parsons has cracked it again. Nominated for the seventh time for his work on The Big Bang Theory as the lovable Sheldon Cooper, Parsons won the Emmy Awards for the fourth time in the Best Actor category in a Comedy, beating out Louie’s Louis CK, Episodes’ Matt LeBlanc, Shameless’ William H. Macy, House of Lies’ Don Cheadle and Derek’s Ricky Gervais. It’s hard to imagine to Parsons as anyone else than the socially-awkward, uptight and the geeky Sheldon Cooper. But the actor debuted as an AIDS activist Tommy Boatwright in the Broadway premiere of The Normal Heart? It was later turned into a film. [caption id=“attachment_1681475” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Jim Parsons before hitting the red carpet for Emmys 2014. AFP.[/caption] The Normal Heart is now an HBO film adaptation of Larry Kramer’s searing play about the very first few years of the AIDS epidemic. Nearly 30 years since it premiered Off-Broadway at the Public Theater, the docu-drama made its long-awaited screen debut on 25 May on HBO. Playing an AIDS activist was very close to Parsons’ heart. In fact, even Marriage Equality was passed in New York while The Normal Heart was playing — that’s a phenomenon in itself. In an interview Playbill, Parsons says how he was moved with the announcement. “It was such a rare experience on so many levels from the silly, which was to have the houselights up on this packed theatre of people you just performed this very emotionally wrenching play in front of – you don’t normally get to see all of them like that. And obviously much bigger than that – What are the chances to have had this passed in New York City as we perform Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart in New York City? What the hell?! It was intense.” In an interview to the Huffington Post earlier, Parsons said that the role connected with his own childhood and with the gay history: “I was about 10, 11, 12 when all of this stuff was going down that ‘Normal Heart’ is really about [in the early 80s], that period of time. I found it frightening. I did grow up very much with the banner over ‘casual sex is a death sentence." Boatwright, the character Parsons played, was roughly the same age as Parsons when the AIDS epidemic broke out. “I started consciously making the connection of what level of importance doing this part has to me as a gay man,” he told Huffington Post. Besides The Big Bang Theory, Parsons was also nominated for his role in The Normal Heart in the Emmys. He didn’t win it but the show won the Emmy Award for best made-for-television movie. Here’s a quick look at one of the scenes from Normal Heart: