Kaley Cuoco Dishes on What It Was Actually Like Working With Johnny Galecki on 'Big Bang'
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Actress Kaley Cuoco had a blast filming The Big Bang Theory for 12 years. But apart from loving her character Penny so much, what really made the experience amazing was the close bond she shared with her fellow cast members, including and perhaps especially Johnny Galecki.
While appearing on Dax Shepard's podcast Armchair Expert last November, The Flight Attendant star dished all sorts of interesting behind-the-scenes stories about The Big Bang Theory. One of the most notable experiences she shared had to do with negotiating their salaries after the show had found overwhelming success on CBS. In particular, she remembers being "very close" to Johnny and "partners" in the negotiation process from the start.
"We shared the celebrations, we were the ones like, 'Can you f--king believe what's going [on]?'," she revealed. "We did that together."
For background, Kaley, Johnny and Jim Parsons all made headlines in 2014 when they signed three-year deals to be paid $1 million per Big Bang Theory episode (not including all other money made off of the show's profits). Eventually, costars Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg also reached this level of pay. But later, all five reportedly agreed to take a $100,000 pay cut in attempt to give Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch pay parity.
Reflecting on the time she and Johnny went through pay negotiations together for the first time, Kaley remembered: "I was with Johnny and, you know, we have a lot of the same people on our teams. So we would get all of our teams together and have these big, ridiculous meetings where we'd be talking about this. And Johnny and I would sit there like, 'Mhm, yeah, very serious.' And then we'd walk outside and it was like wahhhh [*makes screaming noises*]. What?! What just happened?!"
Kaley continued: "We would cry, we would have these long late-night conversations where we would just be balling. Because I knew and he knew in that moment that this would never happen again. And it won't, and it was unbelievable to experience. But him and I did that."
Interestingly enough, just as their characters Penny and Leonard started to develop feelings for one another, so did Kaley and Johnny. Turns out, the two actually dated in real life early on while filming the show. After two years, though, Kaley and Johnny decided to break it off.
"When we broke up, obviously it was a little sensitive for a minute," Kaley continued to recall. "But I remember those weeks that [Big Bang creator Chuck Lorre] had written these episodes where all of a sudden our characters were like sleeping together every other second. And Johnny and I would talk, I’m like, ‘No but I think he did that on purpose.’ I still believe he might’ve ... just to f--k with us. ... Which makes me love him even more."
Big Bang Theory fans will be happy to know that Kaley and Johnny continue to be close friends to this day. But what a story!
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