Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina Couldn’t Stop Laughing While Filming ‘Based on a True Story’: “We Drove People Crazy”
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The biggest challenge in filming Peacock’s dark comedy thriller Based on a True Story? Getting stars Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina to stop laughing in between takes.
“They’re so funny together,” director and executive producer Alexander Buono told The Hollywood Reporter at the show’s Thursday night premiere. “Honestly, the hardest thing was to get them to stop laughing so we could shoot the scene. My role to direct them was often [that I had to] be the wet blanket.”
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“We drove people crazy,” Cuoco agrees. “We laughed all the time. We were the duo that we didn’t even know that we needed. He’s hysterical, he’s kind, he’s fun and also just a wonderful person on set. He takes care of everyone, we both do. It’s important to us and it was a great match.”
From creator Craig Rosenberg, the show follows Cuoco and Messina as married couple Ava and Nathan who are strapped for cash as they expect their first child. When they start a lucrative true crime podcast to make ends meet, they soon find themselves entangled in the very murderous events they’re profiting from. The series is produced by Jason Bateman’s Aggregate Films, in which Bateman and partner Michael Costigan serve as executive producers.
In addition to their off-the-charts chemistry on screen, Buono notes that the pair had two very different acting styles. “[Kaley is] very instinctual, [Chris is] very grounded,” the director said of the two stars. “He loves to do lots and lots of takes, she doesn’t need lots and lots of takes. So I think he grounded her and she brought out a little bit of more comedy from him.”
“Her laugh is so contagious,” Messina remembered about being on set with Cuoco. “You feel like you’re winning when you get her laughing.”
There was so much improvisation while filming that Tom Bateman, who plays Matt, isn’t sure how much of it will actually make it into the show. “We described it as ‘unusable magic,’” the actor recalled. “There should be a word for it — the painful feeling of when you are trying not to laugh. Especially when you’re running late and the crew want to go home and you’re going, ‘Shit, I can’t even get my line out because I’m laughing so hard.’”
In addition to being a fan of Cuoco’s, Messina said it was the show’s heart that drew him to the project. “I love the idea of these two people that had completely fallen apart, and they decide to do the stupidest, darkest, most ridiculous way to come back together,” the Air star said. “That was appealing. I think the DNA of this story is a love story, and that’s what I responded to most.”
In the show, Cuoco’s character Ava is pregnant — a detail that mirrored real life, as the actress herself found out she was expecting her first daughter while filming.
“It was a good distraction,” Cuoco said about the experience. “I complained a lot, ate a lot of bad food. It was [so] special, like when is that ever gonna happen again? It’s like a moment in time. We got to play it, we got to add it to the show. It’s very special that it’s kind of stuck in stone now.”
Based on a True Story premieres on Peacock June 8.
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