Kaley Cuoco Held A Self-Intervention After Her Divorce
While filming season 2 of HBO’s The Flight Attendant, star Kaley Cuoco asked the cast and crew for support while processing her split from ex-husband Karl Cook.
“One month in, I had an intervention on myself in my trailer — all my producers were in there. And I said, ‘I need help,'” she told Variety. “It was interesting to say that out loud. And to have everyone be like, ‘Yes, we want to help!’ I’m a working woman, and so independent, and I really take pride in being able to do everything. Well, this time, I literally couldn’t.”
The 36-year-old actress said that period “was the loneliest I’ve ever felt, and I am not really someone to share that. I’ve been very open about it because I think for the first time, I wanted people to know that things just aren’t always what they seem. And things aren’t always so perfect.”
While filming season 2, Cuoco found herself emotionally triggered by the story of her character, Cassie, who was dealing with depression. “It was one of the hardest years of my life. Not only personally, but doing this character that was so tormented,” Cuoco continued. “It was the first time that I started therapy — I’ve been very open about that. I started at the beginning of Season 2, just because I was going through so much right before we started shooting. It was horrible. And I developed a stress rash that ran all the way down my body for three straight months that wouldn’t go away. I literally, like, had fire on my leg for three months. I could barely walk.”
She continued, “Going through my divorce, it was really a super dark time. I just didn’t know how to deal with it. I was throwing myself into work to deny my depression, and how upset I was. Unfortunately, the character was so depressed that it wasn’t helping me! I was really, really, really struggling. A lot of tears.
Co-star Zosia Mamet helped to pull her out of the depression, going as far as moving into Cuoco’s home during filming. “I really needed someone with me. I was really losing my mind,” Cuoco said. “And then so many of these scenes were so hard to do because they were so hateful, so sad, and so dark, and there wasn’t a lot of levity.”
In an April appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Cuoco said of her friend and roommate, “She basically lived with me the last few months of shooting, we just moved in together, and I don’t think I would’ve gotten to work somedays without her. I never thought I had to depend on anyone like that before and I really depended on her. She helped me through so much.”
Cuoco is now in a new relationship with Ozark actor Tom Pelphrey.
