Kaley Cuoco Explains Why She Can’t Do Love Scenes After Big Bang Theory

After The Big Bang Theory, Kaley Cuoco couldn’t do sex scenes in The Flight Attendant and she explains why. The actress played Penny for 12 years on the hit CBS sitcom until it wrapped up in 2019. From there, she transitioned into the HBO Max dark comedy, where she not only plays the lead role, Cassie, but she also serves as its executive producer.

Cuoco’s Penny was the only female main character on The Big Bang Theory for quite a while until Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik’s Bernie and Amy were brought in as series regulars at the start of season 4. With that, the actress had been solely focused on the sitcom and not much else in terms of work in the last 12 years. Coming out of it, she understandably had a lot of doubts. Cuoco previously admitted that she was scared no one was going to take her seriously after her long stint on The Big Bang Theory. But aside from that, she also had difficulties in doing the acting work herself, especially with regard to intimate scenes.

Speaking during The Hollywood Reporter‘s Comedy Actress Roundtable, Cuoco candidly addressed this matter that was first revealed by her The Flight Attendant co-star, Michel Huisman. She admitted that she struggled filming bed scenes because she was “totally out of my element.” She simply didn’t know how to do it because The Big Bang Theory never really called for that kind of more realistic intimate sequences.

“I just had no idea. When they called ‘cut,’ I’d be hovering over him like I was on a toilet. I’m like, ‘I’m not touching anything, I’m not looking at anything.

“I didn’t know what to do. [Huisman] was like, ‘You’re acting so weird, you’re making this way weirder than it needs to be.'”

What’s interesting in this revelation is that Penny was often depicted as a sexual being in The Big Bang Theory — especially during its first few seasons. She was called names, primarily by Sheldon, and was often subjected to misogynistic comments. Penny was also highly sexualized as in the way the show dressed her up during those early years. But, while Penny did like to go out with men, she wasn’t bed-hopping the way the sitcom presented her. After realizing that she’s in love with Leonard, she remains faithful to him. Over time, The Big Bang Theory started developing the character of Penny in various other ways, making her a more well-rounded person. But, occasionally, Sheldon would still make offensive remarks about her and her previous relationship choices.

Cuoco maintains that she would’ve been happy playing Penny for more years had The Big Bang Theorycontinued to run. The sitcom was surprisingly canceled after Jim Parsons decided he wanted to do other things outside of the sitcom. Instead of continuing with an incomplete cast, they all decided to wrap things altogether. While this was a scary time for Cuoco, transitioning to The Flight Attendant may be one of the best things that she could’ve done for her career seeing as she received a lot of praise on the heels of the show’s first season.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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