Kaley Cuoco gets candid about her challenges while playing Cassie Bowden on The Flight Attendant and turning towards therapy to get better.
Developed by Steve Yockey, 2020’s dark-comedy drama mystery thriller television show The Flight Attendant, starring Kaley Cuoco, was based on a 2018 novel by Chris Bohjalian of the same name. The story follows a reckless, alcoholic flight attendant who gets caught up in a suspicious death. Unable to piece the night together, instead of going to the cops, she cleans up the mess and goes back to work. What follows is the story of piecing back the night, the mysterious death and the flight attendant confronting her demons.
Upon the release of season one, the show received a positive response from the audience and critics who praised Cuoco‘s performance on the show. Season 2 also received a positive response, but earlier this year, the show was canceled after two seasons. Actress Kaley Cuoco, during an interview, dwelled upon confronting her demons, similar to her character on the show.
Kaley Cuoco talks about her real-life challenges coinciding with her character’s challenges on The Flight Attendant
Actress Kaley Cuoco, who is famous for portraying Penny on The Big Bang Theory, impressed the audience with her portrayal of Cassie Bowden on The Flight Attendant. But her character’s struggles on the show coincided with Cuoco’s real-life challenges, which she talks about very freely. In an interview with Variety, the actress was asked how playing Cassie affected her days, especially with the fact that she was also serving as the executive producer. Cuoco said,
It was one of the hardest years of my life. Not only personally, but doing this character that was so tormented. It was the first time that I started therapy—I’ve been very open about that. I started at the beginning of Season 2, just because I was going through so much right before we started shooting. It was horrible.
The actress revealed that her co-star Zosia Mamet had moved in with her when she needed someone with her, as she described that she was losing her mind. Cuoco noted that a lot of scenes on the show were hateful, sad, and dark, and there wasn’t a lot of levity. Upon asking how Mamet moved in with her, Cuoco shared,
She had an Airbnb, and it only lasted so long. And I was like, ‘Why don’t you just move in with me?’ Like it was the loneliest I’ve ever felt, and I am not really someone to share that. I’ve been very open about it because I think for the first time, I wanted people to know that things just aren’t always what they seem.
The Big Bang Theory actress shared that one month into season 2, she had an intervention on herself in her trailer with all her producers as a part of it, and she told them that she needed help. They were all ready to help her, and for that, she was very grateful.
Kaley Cuoco gets candid on why she asked for help
The actress, during the interview, was asked about what made her ask for her while working on The Flight Attendant, to which she replied by stating that going through a divorce was a super-dark time for her. She noted that she didn’t know how to deal with it and tried to throw her into work to deny her depression or how upset the whole situation made her.
Cassie Bowden on the show was also depressed, and it just added to Cuoco’s misery as it did not help her at all, and she admitted that she was struggling. She talks about the season 2 episode 5 scene, which she submitted for the Emmy Awards, and revealed her director, Pete Chapman, walked up to her and asked her how she’d like to proceed with the filming of the episode.
Cuoco told him to just put the cameras around the beach and just roll, and on the day of filming, she just cried for two hours. She described that sequence as amazing and mentioned, ‘Who gets to have an opportunity like that?’ The actress noted she needed that sequence to happen not only for Cassie but for Kaley too, and it all worked in her favor.
She revealed the confrontation scene in the sixth episode with brilliant Sharon Stone, who played Cassie’s estranged mother on the show, was completely unedited and unscripted. Kaley Cuoco noted it ended up being iconic, and the reaction from the audience was totally real.
