AFTER the huge success of comedy series The Big Bang Theory which ran for 12 seasons, actress Kaley Cuoco is back in HBO Max's The Flight Attendant.
The eight-episode limited series sees the 34-year-old Californian star playing flight attendant Cassandra Bowden, who wakes in her hotel room in Bangkok with a dead body lying next to her in bed.
In a state of panic, she carries on as if nothing had happened and flies back to the US.
When Cassandra is questioned about her previous layover in Thailand by FBI agents in New York later, the plucky flight attendant must find a way to piece together what really happened before things really get out of hand for everyone.
To add to the confusion, she keeps seeing the dead body (played by Michiel Huisman).
Based on the novel of the same name by New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian, the dark comedic thriller also stars Rosie Perez, Zosia Mamet, Michelle Gomez, T.R. Knight, Colin Woodell, Merle Dandridge, Griffin Matthews and Nolan Gerard Funk.
Cuoco, known for her comedic roles, first gained attention as the onscreen daughter of John Ritter in the 2002 family sitcom 8 Simple Rules.
The actress then provided the voice to the lead character in the children's animated TV series Brandy & Mr. Whiskers in 2004.
After The Big Bang Theory in 2007, Cuoco became an international star.
In 2017, she founded the film and TV production company, Yes, Norman Productions, which was named after her dog.
Cuoco then entered an exclusive multi-year first-look production deal with Warner Bros. Television.
She currently voices the titular character of Harley Quinn in the adult animated TV series of the same name.
The Flight Attendant is the second project from her production company. Cuoco also serves as executive producer together with Greg Berlanti, Steve Yockey, Marcie Ulin, Meredith Lavender, Sarah Schechter and Suzanne McCormack for the series.
The actress talks about The Flight Attendant below.
As Big Bang was coming to an end, how did The Flight Attendant fit the bill for what you were looking for next?
It's kind of interesting. Over the past few years, I've been looking at books and stuff to maybe produce or different stories that kind of were interesting to me, but nothing excited me. And honestly, I read one little snippet, a line of the book on Amazon (laughs). It just was one sentence and I got like this weird chill and I called my team and said, "Hey, I'd love to look at the rights to this book." And their first question was, "Okay, so you read the book, you love the book?" And I'm like, "Oh, yeah, I totally read the book." I had not read the book, but something had told me jump on this. They do not know that. They're going to know now. So, once they started getting into it, all the back stuff, I read it (laughs) really fast and thank god I loved it as much as I thought. And there was a bidding war and I won the rights and I'm like, "Now what do I do?" I have this what? I got it?" like I didn't believe it. Brought it to Warner Bros. and I said, "You know what? I think this is a great character. I think this could be a really great show." And they brought me to Steve and then they brought us to Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter and it just kept rolling.
What attracted you to this role? And what was your experience as a producer like?
Cassie is extremely perfectly flawed. It was kind of an actor's dream to play someone like her. She's got a rollercoaster of issues, but a heart of gold and she's strong. It's just a great female character to play. And I think coming off of doing comedy and Big Bang – which I love, I love making people laugh – there was something about this that I thought if we could find the right team and bring some levity to such a dark book, that it could be kind of cool. And obviously being a producer and being part of the creative has been a whole new experience for me. I have never done that before. I laughed over the last few years working on this. I'm like I know too much! Like sometimes you just don't want to know all the stuff that's going on. But it's been totally career-changing for me just to see it from the beginning and kind of go with my gut on things and make my own decisions and put this great group together and learn so much. So it's been wonderful.
Have you paid much attention to how stewardesses do what they do, or did you come to your research for this with a clean slate?
Well, after I got the rights to the book and I knew that we were going to do this, now of course it's all I was looking at. I mean you start looking at the flight attendants, you start seeing what they're doing when they're making the drinks and how they talk to each other and how they react to passengers. And even the fact that they take their heels off and they put their comfy shoes on and you see the friendships that some of the flight attendants have. And it's a very close-knit group. I mean you really are traveling together. So I can't help it and I'll probably now, after doing this project, be noticing flight attendants probably for the rest of my life.
Can you talk about the show's tone and how much comedy will be involved with the thriller elements?
I think the tone has been a fascinating challenge in that we really have ridden a fine line because dark stuff happens, but there is levity and we have so many funny actors that can make those quirky moments be a little lighter. It's a very specific tone. I don't think we've seen much of this on TV, so I'm excited.
This is described as a darkly-comic drama. Tell us about both parts of that for you. The comedy seems to come to you very early in life; how did it work out that way, and what's it like when you turn dramatic?
You know, I love making people laugh, I've always loved comedy, I love sitcom, I grew up on it. Even like the "I Love Lucy's" and obviously starting out on my first series with John Ritter, I just love the art of making someone laugh, and not taking yourself too seriously. And obviously I did that for years on the show, and loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat, but this was a great, kind of a new path, but it wasn't so far off the path that people are like, what is she doing? There's still that levity and that side of me that go to come out, finding like a Steve and our creative team who really got to learn my voice, my personality over the past few years, and putting those Kaley-isms in, I think that was really important. But I've loved it. I've loved the drama, I've loved being scared, I've loved running, it's been completely new and different, I've really never done anything like it before. And I've completely enjoyed it. But I love sitcoms too, and you know, people think "Oh she's never gonna want to do that again." That's what got me to this point, and it's totally cherished. But this has been a new ride.
Why did decide to go back to a TV show after years on TV instead of doing movies, for example?
TV is great. The schedule is great, little more compacted, you know, TV is changing. All the new ways you can watch, series are different. You know, with Big Bang we were doing 24 episodes a year. This is just as a different situation, you wanna binge things, they're shorter. It's kind of like doing a long movie. And I love the schedule and I love television and I think the way we view television now is completely different, you know. And I'll always love TV.
This is from the book, so are you thinking it is a limited series, or do you have plans for another seasons?
Oh, we have plans for another season.
Between this and Harley Quinn, were you looking for jobs that were as different as possible, or were they just best roles you wanted to do?
I wasn't looking for Harley Quinn, that's been a lovely surprise. When I started my production company, it was even kind of close to almost before The Flight Attendant – Peter Roth called me from Warner Brothers and said, "We're making this raunchy Harley Quinn animated show, are you interested in it?" And I was like "Yeah, that could be kinda fun." And it was a small little thing, and the writers were hilarious, I fell in love with them, and we made the show, and it's crazy, it's totally insane. I had no idea it was gonna be as insane and raunchy as it has become. I'm even shocked half the time at the stuff I'm saying. But that's been just like this enjoyable – it kinda started as a little side gig, and turned into something more. And then The Flight Attendant, obviously it was really a book that drew me in, and I thought it would be a really interesting character to play. We got the right team together. And so it wasn't really like a conscious, I was trying to get so far away from what I did before, this kind of was the natural progression, it was the projects that I liked.
How much will we be seeing Michiel Huisman throughout the season via flashbacks to that one night?
We see him a lot. We see him a lot, yeah.
Courtesy of HBO
Watch The Flight Attendant on HBO GO via Astro, www.hbogoasia.com or the HBO GO app.