Kaley Cuoco: ‘Being typecast as the sitcom girl next door was the best thing that could ever happen to me’

Kaley Cuoco wants you to know that she’s been in the entertainment business for almost “30 f***ing years”. Having first appeared on screen in the 1992 thriller Quicksand: No Escape at seven years of age, the actor has played a string of beloved characters since. You might recognise her as Billie Jenkins, the fledgling witch from the final series of Charmed. Or as Bridget, the ditzy, popular eldest sibling of the Hennessey family from the early Noughties comedy 8 Simple Rules. Most likely, you’ll know her as Penny from smash sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

She is a seasoned comic actor – her timing is impeccable – yet last month, much to her surprise, she was described as a “newcomer” after being nominated for a Golden Globe for her latest role in The Flight Attendant. “It’s hysterical,” she says, on a video call from her home in Los Angeles. “Doesn’t anyone remember I was on that sitcom for 12 f***ing years that only ended about six seconds ago? I don’t give a shit, but it’s a judgmental business. I’ve loved everything I’ve ever done. I’ve never tried to fight against any of it. I think anyone who tries to erase the work that got them where they are is so wrong.”

The Flight Attendant is based on Chris Bohjalian’s dark 2018 novel of the same name, but is much more entertaining – an eclectic amalgamation of international murder mystery and comedy caper. It follows Cassie Bowden, party girl and cabin crew, who, after spending a night in Bangkok with a handsome passenger, wakes up to find his throat has been slit. With a hangover and no memories of the night before, rather than phone the police, she runs.

While the show is undeniably funny, it also touches on more uncomfortable subjects, from unresolved grief to Cassie’s ruinous dependence on alcohol. She’s often surprised to find a stranger in her bed after a night out, she’s regularly late for work and is an unreliable aunt – not to mention the fact she can’t remember whether or not she killed a man in Thailand.

Cuoco refers to Cassie as a “functioning alcoholic” and felt it important that, by the end of the series, we would see her reach out for help. “This isn’t someone who’s slurring in the streets all day long. She has a job, she has friends, she looks like she’s got her shit together, but she literally gets by because she is drinking sips of alcohol all day long.

“There’s a lot of comedy,” says Cuoco. “But I wanted to make sure that the alcohol was not the funny part. Alcohol isn’t a joke.”

Cuoco is also executive producer, and the show comes from her own production company, Yes, Norman. It was hard work. “There were days when I would literally cry myself to sleep wishing I had never ever found the book,” she’s laughing, but it’s no exaggeration.

“Coming off such a successful show [The Big Bang Theory], I knew people were going to judge whatever I did next – not look down on, but question. It was a huge risk. I believe in my heart that no one would have cast me in this part even if I’d given the audition of my life. I felt like I had to prove I could do something else.”

As far as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are concerned, she succeeded. We’re speaking four days after the Golden Globes, where Cuoco was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy. Catherine O’Hara won in the end for Schitt’s Creek. “I knew Catherine was going to win. I would have voted for her myself. I was absolutely thrilled for her,” she says. Cuoco did, however, win the night in another arena – Instagram. A photograph of her eating cake and swigging champagne on the floor in her gown got over a million likes. “There was something so cool about doing the show from home because it meant my team and my family could be with me. And if I had won, we wouldn’t have had the magical cake photo on the ground that has now become a meme.” Her performance also earned nods from the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Critics’ Choice Awards.

It’s been a strange year to be an actor, but perhaps an even stranger one to be a producer, responsible for stopping and then resuming filming in a pandemic. After all production was halted in the US, The Flight Attendant was the first American show to return to the streets of New York and Cuoco didn’t take her role lightly. “I had to be the example of faith in the show,” she says. “It was a little sad for me. I literally became the bubble girl, no one could touch me or get near me – if I went down, it was over.” The delayed shoot led to a delayed premiere in the US, nabbing the coveted Thanksgiving spot on HBO Max.

Aside from The Flight Attendant, Cuoco has only been executive producer on one other show, the animated series Harley Quinn in which she also plays the lead role. The experience has left her “amazed” by other producers. “I have such empathy for anyone who makes anything. You should get all the awards no matter who you are. Everyone should win an Oscar. But there are some true heroes who make me look good. My crew were there way before me and I was always there early.”

The Flight Attendant is both a stressful watch, and tremendous fun. The full series will be able to stream after the first episode has aired and a second season is already underway, set to start shooting towards the end of 2021. “We don’t know what the world will look like by then,” muses Cuoco, “but we’re planning to keep it international [the first series filmed some scenes in Bangkok and Rome], so hopefully we’ll be able to travel.”

No matter how much responsibility Cuoco takes on behind the camera nor how many Hollywood blockbusters she stars in (she has just been cast as Doris Day in a series about the actor’s life), to many she will always be TBBT‘s Penny.

For her, that’s no bad thing. “I’ll never be able to compare anything to Big Bang. It was such a specific and special situation that nothing will ever be like it,” she says. Perhaps that’s why she refuses to rule out revisiting the character. “I would for sure do a reunion, absolutely. I’m counting down the days till the Friends reunion airs. I think we need to give Big Bang a little bit of a break, but I’m down for that any time.

“I think there’s a misconception that people that are on shows for a long time get worried about being pigeonholed. I used to laugh because I was like, ‘if I’m typecast as the girl next door in a ­sitcom for the rest of my life, that’s the best thing that could ever ­happen to me’.”

The Flight Attendant starts at 9pm on Sky One on Friday, 19 March. The entire series will be available to watch on Now TV after the first episode has aired

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