If timing is everything, then Kaley Cuoco’s new Peacock show, Based on a True Storycame along at the perfect moment. After an insanely busy and difficult 2021 that included filming an intense second season of The Flight Attendant and going through a divorce, the actor was looking for a break.
“I want to take a breath between jobs, which I haven’t done since the beginning of Big Bang Theory,” she told Glamour in her April 2022 cover story. “And I want to have a relationship that I give my time to and that the person feels [like they’re] really part of my life. I get so distracted with work, and I want to have that in the future.”
Soon after, Cuoco went public with her relationship with actor Tom Pelphrey; by October they announced they were expecting their first child together. (Their daughter, Matilda, was born in March 2023.) What soon followed was a vacation—technically a babymoon—before Cuoco embarked on a new work project that combined her love of comedy and true crime, without the emotional intensity a role like Cassie Bowden on The Flight Attendant requires.
Enter Based on a True Story. The highly entertaining eight-episode dark comedic thriller is about a realtor (Cuoco), a former tennis star (Chris Messina), and a plumber (Tom Bateman) who seize a unique opportunity to capitalize on America’s obsession with true crime. When Cuoco signed on, her character, Ava Bartlett, was not supposed to be pregnant, but her real-life pregnancy was written in when Cuoco let the producers know she was expecting.
“They were a little unsure at first,” she tells Glamour. “But then they were like, ‘You know what? This is actually so much better because it raises so many stakes for this couple.’ It was a very happy accident.”
While The Flight Attendant took Cuoco all over the world, from Thailand to Iceland, True Story filmed in Los Angeles, allowing the Southern California native to sleep in her own bed every night. That was a selling point, along with the fact that it checked every other box Cuoco was looking for.
Based on a True Story—from creator Craig Rosenberg—follows Cuoco and Messina as a married couple who are strapped for cash as they expect their first child. When they attempt to start a true-crime podcast to make ends meet, they find themselves entangled in the very murderous events they’re profiting from.
Erica Parise/PEACOCK
“I am such a true-crime fanatic, and I love that genre so much,” she says. “The tone of this show resembled kind of what I did in Flight Attendantin the sense that it had all the things [like comedy, drama, high-stakes adventure]. I thrive in that area. I like that chaos, so it felt perfect. Then Chris Messina signed on, and we had the best time together. It checked every box.”
The role also offered Cuoco a chance to show a different side of herself—as a woman who just happens to be pregnant and isn’t limited by what she can or can’t do. “She’s not changing the way she dresses or decisions to be made,” Cuoco says. “I wanted all that to be in there. It was all very thought out in an authentic way.”
Here, Cuoco goes into detail about this latest chapter in her life, what she wants next, the major sacrifice she made for love, and more.
Glamour: Your character, Ava, was not originally supposed to be pregnant. How did that change things for the storyline?
Kaley Cuoco: Right, it was not written that way, at all. In fact, the original script had Ava and Nathan with older kids. They were like, “You know what? We’re going to take out the kids completely.” This is when I signed on. I was like, “Great. I like that.” Then, when I got pregnant, I told them and they said, “You know what? This actually works better.” I was glad because I didn’t have to hide my pregnancy. It worked so much better. The stakes are higher. I also love that it got written in and nothing really changed, as far as the scripts. Ava just happened to be pregnant. We didn’t talk about it all the time. She still had the fantasies. We’re doing all the high jinks and running around and…
And having sex, which is so important.
Having sex. Yes, which I love. It was all just normal. Not changing the way she dressed and not changing the decisions she made, not taking out the sex scenes and the fantasies. I wanted all that to be in there. Just because she’s pregnant doesn’t change anything. I was very proud of that. I would wear tank tops. Half the time my stomach is hanging out. In later episodes, you see me in a swimsuit, which I’ll probably regret later. I did all of it. I was like, “This is very real.” I wanted women to see it’s real and it’s great. That stuff is so important to me. I’m constantly throwing my hair up and doing it myself. There was a gym scene and I’m wearing my sports bra with no makeup and my stomach’s hanging out. It’s real, it’s fun, and it’s cute. In that same scene, I was very adamant about wearing Nathan’s tennis shorts because I thought, Okay. She’s not really into this pregnancy. You don’t see her out there doing all her shopping. She’s probably bought nothing, no maternity clothes. She’s going to pull his shorts out and wear them. It was all very thought out in an authentic way. I wanted it to look and feel as real as it felt to me.
Matilda was born three weeks after you wrapped. Was there a plan in place had you gone into labor during filming?
We were worried about that. If we had shot a month later, I don’t know if we would’ve been able to finish. It was right on the verge. They basically wrote in the exact amount of months that I was, and it worked out. Again, if we had pushed a month, I don’t know if we would have finished on time, which is crazy.
In Based on a True Story, there are similarities to The Flight Attendant. How is Ava different from Cassie?
This is more fun than The Flight Attendant. Cassie was a little bit more flippant and a little more lost and reactive, I feel, to things that were going on. Now we’ve got Ava, who’s like, “This is what we’re doing. This is what needs to be done to save this marriage, to save our relationship, to get our money.” She is really, really, really pushing forward in this [podcast plan] and convincing Nathan to go on this ride with her. These are good people who make a really poor decision. We see that a lot, which is why I think why we love true crime. Most of the time it’s a normal person doing something terrible.
At the end of this season, Ava and Nathan are as bad as the serial killer. I mean, they will at some point be in as much trouble as he would be in. I love the threesome, here, where each of them has something on each other, like, “We can’t turn each other in at this point.” It’s so fun having a husband on the show. It really was me, Chris, and Tom Bateman working off each other. It couldn’t have been more fun, even though there were some serious moments. It was a blast.
Talk to me about working with Chris Messina. How familiar were you with his previous roles?
Everyone is in love with Chris, and I get it. He’s so special. When I heard that he was considering doing this—and he’s done a lot of serious stuff—I ended up googling some scenes from The Mindy Project. One scene came up where he was doing this crazy dance for her, and it was so funny. I found it to be very brave, like, “Oh, he’ll put himself out there and be silly,” which I thought was a cool thing. He’s a brave, funny actor. I don’t think he realizes how funny he is. He always says, “No. I’m more of a serious guy. I do these indies, and I do this and that.” I’m like, “Chris, you are so hysterical. You don’t give yourself enough credit.”
One day I told him—and this was a very meaningful thing for me to say to him—he reminds me of John Ritter, in the sense of his comedy, his jokes, his silliness, his love for the crew and the people around him. The way he is really reminded me of being around John. To me, that’s the biggest compliment I could give anybody. That was a very special moment. Anyway, he’s hysterical. We laughed so hard while filming. We’d go home exhausted, not from working, but from laughing all day. I just loved him, and it was a great, great experience.
Messina and Cuoco at the after-party for Based on a True Story‘s premiere
Todd Williamson
I love that you didn’t know about his iconic dancing on The Mindy Project until you watched those scenes on YouTube. He’s a classically trained dancer.
He is a really good dancer. In one episode for Based on a True Storywe go to CrimeCon in Vegas, and Ava and Nathan have a very wild night. It’s alcohol-, drug-induced with a lot of different people, and we dance. It is so hysterical. We’re like manically dancing. Chris is actually very good. He looks like a pro. It was really fun to shoot. He loved it. He feels very comfortable dancing.
You’re very good at it too. You danced on Big Bang.
I just love to let loose. I like to go crazy. I’m not good by any means. I just like to bounce around.
I remember those flash mobs you did. You know what you’re doing!
Flash mobs. Oh, man. I wish we did that on this show. Maybe, season two.
So will there be a season two?
It lends itself to that, for sure. Chris and I obviously would love to do a season two. I think there’s a lot more story to tell, a lot more high jinks, silliness, comedy. We would absolutely be down for that.
As we know, Ava is obsessed with true crime. What’s the deepest rabbit hole you’ve gone down?
Definitely my reality-TV obsession; right now it’s Vanderpump Rules. Each rabbit hole leads to another one, leads to this Instagram, leads to this post. I have spent hours in bed at night being like, “Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.” Just kind of overindulging in that.
Does Tom [Pelphrey] share in this obsession?
Yes. I got him into Vanderpump Rules. He’s not a reality guy, at all, but he knew I was watching this so intensely. I said, “Listen, let’s start a few seasons back. If you’re not into it, it’s fine.” He’s so into it. He’s out of town right now, and he’s literally sworn me that I wouldn’t watch the reunion without him. So now I have to wait five days to watch the reunion, which makes me so mad, but I also understand it. I probably would have made him do the same thing. I hope I don’t see any spoilers.
By the way, what does it mean to the both of you that this is technically Matilda’s first role?
I know. She was there. It’s crazy. It’s going to be so cool to have this moment in time. I’ve grown up in front of the cameras. I’ve been working since I was five years old. The world has seen everything that has happened to me, every change, good, bad, all this stuff. To have this now, it’s like, “It’s only natural to show this side.” I was very adamant about doing it this way.
Jessica Radloff is the Glamour senior West Coast editor and author of the NOW best-selling book The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series. You can follow her on Instagram at @jessicaradloff14.
