Jim Parsons was ready to move on from 'The Big Bang Theory'.
Jim Parsons
The 46-year-old actor had played Sheldon Cooper for 12 years and though fans were sat when the show recently came to an end, he insisted it was the right time to step away because he'd done everything he could with his character.
He said: "I played the s**t out of that character, and some people could have done it longer probably -- I don't mean our show, but this relationship with the character.
"But I feel like we really wrung that material for what it was."
And Jim admitted it was very unusual for someone in a "creative profession" to stay in the same job for such a long time.
He told Variety: "No matter how successful you are, even if you're a huge success in movies, you don't get to check into the same parking space for 12 years.
"This is not how someone in a creative profession normally gets to behave. Most human beings crave that structure, so I can see how it causes some hurricanes in the heart."
Elsewhere in the interview, Jim admitted he didn't come out to his family until he met now-husband Todd Spiewak and knew the time was right to do so otherwise it would have put a "lifelong barrier" between him and them.
He said: "No offense to the lovely men I dated before Todd, but somewhere deep inside, I immediately knew that there was no choice left but to deal with this, because to not let them in on this person I had met was to officially start putting up these lifelong barriers." "
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