Kaley Cuoco was “so shocked” when Jim Parsons wanted ‘Big Bang Theory’ to end. The 35-year-old actress recalled how she and Johnny Galecki were summoned to showrunner Chuck Lorre’s office at the start of filming season 12 of the comedy series in 2018 and they were both expecting to discuss plans for a 13th series – so were horrified when their co-star dropped a bombshell that set the ending to the programme in motion.
She recalled: “Johnny and I had talked a lot about [season 13]. Did we want to do it? And we really did… “How do I want to say this and make sure I say it correctly? Jim said, ‘I don’t think I can continue on.’
“And I was so shocked that I was literally like, ‘Continue on with what?’ Like, I didn’t even know what he was talking about. I looked at Chuck: ‘Wow. I thought we were — I’m so blown away right now.’
“[Chuck said] ‘We’re all for one, one for all. And we’re not going to do this without the whole team.’ “That was the one thing we all agreed on — we came in together, we go out together.”
Kaley admitted she was “in a state of shock” with Jim’s admission and recalled how during the meeting, “everyone had their open feelings, and there were questions and tears.”
The actress – who married Ryan Sweeting in December 2013 after just three months of dating and got divorced 21 months later – admitted she’d played Penny for so long, she rarely remembered her life before the show.
She told Variety she remembered thinking: “Oh, my God, I don’t remember my life before this show! “And I went through a divorce on the show. We got married in, like, six seconds.”
At the start of season eight, the major cast members of the show banded together and negotiated a $1 million per episode fee, which Kaley – who is now married to Karl Cook – will always consider “a blessing”.
She said: “It was a blessing. I was able to take care of a lot of things in my life and my family, and I will forever be grateful for that.” And the ‘Flight Attendant’ star will always “appreciate” having equal pay to her male co-stars.
She said: “I knew that I was equal to them from day one. And that was never questioned in my experience with ‘Big Bang’ — which I will always appreciate, because it set a standard for me.”
