For some actors, filming intimate scenes can certainly make for an awkward day on set. But can you imagine having to film them with your real-life ex?
Well, according to The Big Bang Theory star Kaley Cuoco, her character’s steamy moments with Leonard — played by her real-life former boyfriend Johnny Galecki — actually increased after their split... and she’s pretty convinced it wasn’t by accident.
Cuoco, who played Penny for all 12 seasons of the CBS hit, told Dax Shepard on Armchair Expert that things got “a little sensitive” after she and Galecki ended their off-screen relationship.
“We dated at the beginning of the show for almost two years,” she said. “Eventually, we got together and we were mad about each other… but then we broke up.”
Despite the breakup, the actors still had to keep up their on-screen romance. But Cuoco noticed something weird. “I just remember Chuck Lorre — the genius behind our show — those weeks where our characters would be jumping in bed with each other every other second,” she said. “Johnny and I talk about it and I think [Chuck] did that on purpose — just to f**k with us.”
She added: “If I was with him, I would ask him, because it came out of nowhere. All of a sudden these characters were all up on each other.”
Chuck Lorre Denies Messing With His Cast
If Cuoco suspected a little behind-the-scenes trolling, Lorre says that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In Jessica Radloff’s oral history The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story, the showrunner pushed back, saying: “There’s no, ‘Let’s mess with Kaley and Johnny,’
"The goal was to make a great show… and that was the only goal.”
Lorre called the idea that he might have orchestrated sex scenes as payback “charming,” but insisted he didn’t “have the mental capacity to mess with them,” joking: “Penny and Leonard having difficulty sustaining a relationship was one of the reasons to keep watching — to see if they could make it.”
Even Galecki, hearing Lorre’s response, admitted they may have misread the situation. “I guess that was pretty egotistical of us to think that,” he laughed. “We were reading into things a little too much. I’m going to sleep a little easier tonight.”
The Breakup Didn’t Break the Bond
Despite the tension, Cuoco says she and Galecki handled their real-life breakup like pros.
“Luckily Johnny and I came out of it so brilliantly,” she said. “We’re closer today than we ever were.”
They had good reason to keep things professional. By the show’s later seasons, Cuoco and the rest of the main cast were earning an eye-watering $1 million per episode — a figure that matched sitcom giants like the Friends and Big Bang Theory co-leads Jim Parsons, Simon Helberg, and Kunal Nayyar.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Cuoco looked back on the series as “so special.” She added: “The cast, the amount of time spent together, the pay, the ratings — it was nuts. It was unheard of. Nothing will ever compare to that.”
Jim Parsons’ Exit Shook the Cast to Its Core
The Big Bang crew had weathered breakups and awkward rewrites, but Jim Parsons’ unexpected decision to leave after Season 12 blindsided them. In Radloff’s book, Parsons said he “was ready to… get out of the security of the show to fully find out what was next for me.”
But the way his exit played out didn’t sit well with everyone. Executive producer Steve Malaro revealed that after Parsons told producers he was done, they waited nearly a week to inform the rest of the cast, per The Independent.
Cuoco recalled the moment: “We cried for hours. I couldn’t breathe. It just felt like a death.” Galecki echoed the sentiment, saying: “We thought we were going into Chuck’s office to talk about renegotiating, and then Chuck tossed the baton to Jim.”
Simon Helberg said he was also ready to move on, but neither he nor Parsons realized it would trigger the show's end. “That didn’t mean we… expected that the show would certainly end,” he said.
Even with tensions running high, the cast chose to finish strong. “If this was going to be the last season,” said showrunner Steve Holland, “they were going to put aside their anger and frustration and enjoy every minute of it.”
Final Episode, Forever Legacy
The Big Bang Theory wrapped for good on May 16, 2019, after 12 seasons and 279 episodes.
But its legacy — and the off-screen stories that came with it — continue to fascinate fans.
Whether or not those bed scenes were really just plot twists or something more personal, Cuoco’s honesty adds a human layer to one of TV’s biggest success stories.