Coming out can be a big deal in the ordinary world. But it’s a whole other story when it comes to Hollywood. Actors and actresses worry about their followers, their reputations, and upcoming rejections from production companies. Today, we want to go deeper and see how Jim Parsons, the talented actor from The Big Bang Theory, feels about it.

In 2012, Jim Parsons quietly came out as a gay man. In a new profile in the New York Times, The Big Bang Theory star matter-of-factly described that he was “gay and in a 10-year relationship.” Parsons never explicitly discussed his sexuality or comments in the written statement, and when contacted, his rep had no further comments.

“Once I came out to myself and admitted it to myself, the only people [left] were my family, sadly, but that’s kinda the way it goes. Everybody else I worked with knew, but I was doing theatre and I was still in school... It was lowkey, it was out of the public eye. There were no high stakes.”

Jim Parsons admits that in recent years, he has experienced “an awakening” about how much he enjoys “bringing myself to the work” when playing characters that identify as LGBTQ+. Parsons, 49, said that “the majority” of the roles he gets offered are for gay characters: “I wouldn’t necessarily call it a lot of LGBTQ+ content, but there are a lot of gay characters that I get offered,” Parsons said when asked what kind of scripts he’s sent. “The majority, I would say, that I get offered are gay.”