Kaley Cuoco Admits She Hit Rock-Bottom While Playing ‘Flight Attendant’ Character

Kaley Cuoco is opening up about her personal struggles going through a tough divorce while still acting over the last year. She said that her issues lined up with those of her character Cassie Bowden in the second season of the hit HBO Max series The Flight Attendant.

Returning to the role after the initially-limited series got renewed due to popular demand, Cuoco told Variety she went through one of “the hardest years of my life,” both personally and professionally due to the unfortunate timing of her divorce from Karl Cook.

The actress said the stress from her acting and producing responsibilities and starting therapy to heal from the divorce “developed a rash that ran all the way down my body for three straight months … I could barely walk.”

She invited Zosia Mamet, a co-star in the series, to live in her house because “I really needed someone with me, I was really losing my mind.”

She struggled to open up to her co-workers but burned out partway through shooting.

“One month in, I had an intervention on myself in the trailer – all my producers were in there, and I said, ‘I need help.’ It was interesting to say that out loud,” she said. “And to have everyone be like, ‘Yes, we want to help!'”

Cuoco was also open about the flaws in using a fictional character to heal.

“I was throwing myself into work to deny the depression, and how upset I was. Unfortunately, the character was so depressed that it wasn’t helping me!” Cuoco said insightfully.

She added that times of the shoot were “so life-imitating-art at certain moments that it was eerie,” and she wouldn’t do it again even if it helped the performance.

She has turned a personal corner since wrapping the show, which earned her a second Lead Actress Emmy nomination in a row for the same role.

She said she is open to a third season, but for now, “I like when shows breath. This isn’t The Big Bang Theory days.”

Cuoco is currently killing it as the voice of Harley Quinn in the adult animated series adaptation, which just moved to HBO Max for its third season getting rave reviews.