Kaley Cuoco is candidly reflecting on a cosmetic decision that briefly made her job on The Big Bang Theory much harder than expected.
The actress, who portrayed Penny throughout the long-running CBS sitcom’s 12-season run from 2007 to 2019, revealed that her first experience with Botox left her unable to properly move her face during filming. Cuoco shared the story on Tuesday’s episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast while speaking with host Amanda Hirsch.
“It was deep into the show, like halfway maybe. I just wanted to do a little Botox,” Cuoco explained. “I did my forehead and all this stuff, and I was so excited.”
That excitement quickly faded once she returned to set. Cuoco realized she could no longer move her forehead — a problem for a character whose humor relied heavily on expressive reactions.
“It was the same week there was a scene where I really had to do this thing with my face, and I could not move,” she said. “I was literally doing these jokes, and nothing moved. My forehead didn’t move, and it looked like I was trying to move it.”
The situation was made even more awkward by the silence around her. “The fact that no one said anything — they probably were thinking it — I couldn’t believe how bad it looked,” Cuoco added. “That’s when I thought, ‘Whoa. Let’s calm it down.’”
Despite the initial setback, Cuoco didn’t swear off Botox altogether. Instead, she adjusted her approach, choosing to avoid injections in her forehead moving forward.
“I love a little Botox,” she said, noting that she now prefers receiving injections around the outer corners of her eyes and in her neck to soften fine lines. “I have to express with my forehead.”
Cuoco isn’t the only celebrity to speak openly about cosmetic procedures gone wrong. In December 2024, Meghan Trainor admitted on her Workin’ On It with Meghan Trainor & Ryan Trainor podcast that she had received “too much Botox,” leaving her unable to smile properly.
“I messed up,”