It quickly became apparent that Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina were friends in real life during a joint interview with the pair to discuss their new crime thriller Based On A True Story.

They jokingly jabbed one another, finished each other’s sentences, and laughed throughout the conversation. It would be fair to assume they were longtime friends, but as it turns out, they’d never worked together or met before making the Peacock dramedy.

They had, of course, seen one another’s work over the years, but the eight-episode series was their first time acting together, and the result was simply splendid. They have that magical onscreen chemistry.

In this case, the viewer reaps the rewards with perfectly timed and delivered laugh-out-loud one-liners in the tale of a realtor, a former tennis star, and a plumber as they devise a plan to join the lucrative world of true-crime podcasts.

Regarding the sharp writing, both confirm it was often hard to keep a straight face. “We’d go off the rails, and we got in trouble a lot!” admits Cuoco.

“They told us to shut up a lot,” Messina adds, as both laugh at some inside joke between them.

In the story, beautiful and sunny Los Angeles is terrorized by the West Side Ripper, a serial killer leaving a bloody trail of victims around the city. As a true-crime fanatic, Cuoco’s Ava Bartlett knows there’s money in murder, with top podcasts garnering $25 million deals.

Cuoco, well-known for her role in The Flight Attendant, stars as a pregnant wife and realtor who hasn’t had much luck selling a home in a while. She’s married to Nathan, played by Chris Messina (Air), a former tennis pro who suffered an injury that ended his career. She ropes Nathan in and even convinces him to work with the killer.

The down-on-their-luck couple faces a mounting pile of unpaid bills when they befriend the charming Matt, portrayed by Tom Bateman (Thirteen Lives), a plumber who comes to fix their toilet.

As despicable as their plan is, you root for them. They’re chasing the American dream of fame and success but soon find themselves in way over their heads. Though it may not seem like a comedy, it is a laugh-out-loud romp on the dark side.

When asked about their initial reactions upon receiving the script for the pilot episode, each said they couldn’t stop laughing. Cuoco got the script before Messina.

“I’d known about this script before anything came to me,” recalls Cuoco. “I thought the idea was so brilliant, and then when I got lucky enough to be asked to be a part of it, I was thrilled. I thought it was hilarious. And I wanted to work with this guy,” she adds, with a friendly jab to her co-star.

“I thought it was very smart. I love true crime. I love comedy. I love dark comedy. And then I got pregnant and made them change the entire storyline,” she laughs aloud.

Messina feels Cuoco’s pregnancy made the storyline even better. “It was one of the best things for the show.” He then reflects on getting the pilot script and learning he’d be starring alongside Cuoco. “I was a huge fan and jumped at the opportunity to act with her. I love the idea of this couple that’s falling apart and falling away from each other, and they choose the most ridiculous, dangerous, darkest plan to come back together.”

Ava and Nathan turn a dark corner by the end of season one. You cannot make a deal with the devil and keep blood off your hands. When asked to describe their characters, Cuoco and Messina look at one another and, again, laugh.

“That’s the thing about it. If you watch as much true crime as many of us do, especially me, you see good people doing really bad things. Or, they get stuck in a situation they feel like they can’t get out of. And these two are at their desperate wits’ end. Their marriage is falling apart, they’re losing money, they’re about to lose their house, and they have a baby on the way. So, I think this falls in their lap, and it obviously spins so far out of control, and they’re pretty much screwed now. I mean, they’re as bad as the killer at this point. I was laughing that season two would just be us in prison. I mean, they really are in a bad place. I think they’re also getting off on the fact that this is so exciting, and it’s something new in their life, and they’re doing it together. Now they’re committed, and there’s no way out.”

“They’re lost,” says Messina. “They thought they were going to be something else, and I think everyone can relate to that. What you thought your life was going to be or supposed to be, and now it looks quite different. But the idea that they would feel either successful or powerful in the road they take in the show is hysterical, ridiculous, and super dark.”

Despite the dark material, everyone had fun on the set. “We definitely played a lot. He’s not joking when he says we were told multiple times to shut up,” Cuoco says. “We’d go on these tangents and just go completely out of control. I’d be like, ‘How are they going to edit this?’ But it was too much fun. Immediately, the first scene we did together was electric, and we just kept going with it, and I think that was part of the magic of the show.”

Messina explains there’s no way of knowing how you’ll get along with your co-stars when you take on an acting role, especially if you’ve never met. “We just became the best of friends.”

“Yeah,” agrees Cuoco.

The season ends with quite the cliffhanger, so here’s hoping for a second dose of Ava and Nathan. We saw them get into this mess and need to see them get out of it if they can.

The series comes from Craig Rosenberg, Jason Bateman, and Michael Costigan. Rosenberg, known for hits including The Boys and Gen V, serves as showrunner, executive producer, and writer. Bateman and Costigan executive produce.

Source: Forbes

One element of Peacock’s crime-com “Based on a True Story” was inspired by real life: Star Kaley Cuoco’s pregnancy was written into the eight-episode series (now streaming).

Originally, true-crime-obsessed real estate agent Ava (Cuoco) and her tennis star-turned-club pro husband Nathan (Chris Messina) had no kids. But Cuoco’s pregnancy raises the stakes for the fictional – and financially challenged – couple, who launch a podcast with a serial killer to rake in a huge payday.

Cuoco, 37, says the series’ tone is comparable to Max’s “The Flight Attendant,” the two-season thriller about an airline employee and CIA informant that earned the actress two Emmy nominations.

That tightrope walk is “something I feel that I’m good at,” she says, “riding the wave of comedy and terror and fear and jokes and all the things mixed in − sadness. It had everything, and that’s what I love.”

Cuoco also enjoyed being able to lean into her pregnancy during filming. She and her partner, actor Tom Pelphrey (“Ozark”), welcomed daughter Matilda Carmine Richie Pelphrey on March 30. While filming “Based on a True Story,” she was encouraged to gain weight, a first for the actress, who’s worked since she was a child.

“I remember one of our producers and our showrunner was like, ‘You need to eat more.’ … And I was like, ‘I have never heard that before!’ So I’m like, ‘Sure! Happy to!’ It was freeing.”

She says she indulged in In-N-Out burgers and constantly craved ice. Sharing her pregnancy so openly felt natural for Cuoco.

“You’ve seen every part of my life − good and bad − in front of everyone. And so it was kind of cool to show this too,” she says. “Why not? Why not just own it and wear short shirts and let my stomach hang out? I did the swimsuit scene, and I did all these different things, and it felt right. And I’m very proud of it, and I hope it inspires other women to be like, ‘It’s fine. We can still do it all.’”

Cuoco, however, avoids sex scenes and left Ava’s sensual fantasies to a body double who wore a belly prosthetic.

“I don’t roll that way. I need someone else to do that stuff,” she says.

“I’m past that. I’m not doing that anymore,” she adds. “Also, who wants to see that? Not my thing. I’d rather let someone else do it, and that’s what’s movie magic (is for). We don’t have to do those things anymore. We can have someone else do it, and we can fake our way through. You think that Chris Messina played tennis? Please! He was terrible! That’s his double.”

Cuoco is also grateful for her stunt doubles, whom she relied on as her belly grew.

“I had to be on my feet a lot. It was a lot,” she says. “And by the end, I was nine months pregnant. So the fight scene at the end near the grave − the fantasy − a lot of that was done by my double because it was like I was literally about to give birth, like any second.”

In the new Peacock series “ Based on a True Story,” debuting Thursday, Kaley Cuoco plays Ava, a woman obsessed with true crime. She consumes these dark stories all day, analyzes the cases with her friends and murder-centric podcasts help lull her to sleep at night.

“Do we have to wake up to murder every morning?” her husband Nathan, played by Chris Messina, asks in a scene.

The series highlights an explosion of coverage of true crime in recent years. It is the subject of podcasts, documentary series, books, and social media posts where amateur sleuths breathlessly weigh in on the latest crime du jour.

In “Based on a True Story,” Ava hatches a plan to start a podcast — hosted by the couple — to interview a serial killer. She is confident that it will be lucrative and add excitement into their otherwise middle-aged monotony.

The choices made by Ava and Nathan in the series, argues Cuoco, are similar to the subjects of actual true crime stories whose fate is determined by one bad decision.

“It happens all the time,” said Cuoco. “That’s why this was very believable to me. They are in a desperate situation, make a really ridiculous choice out of desperation and end up in a very bad place. In my opinion, they’re as bad as the killer by the end of this,” she said.

Cuoco admits to being a fan of true crime herself and likens it to “looking at an accident” on the road. “We’re rubberneckers,” she said.

Co-star Liana Liberato, who plays Ava’s younger sister, has a list of true crime podcasts to recommend. “Some of my favorites are ‘S-Town’, ‘Root of Evil’, ‘ To Live and Die in LA. ‘ I’m a little too obsessed. I relate very much to Kaley’s character,” Liberato said.

She’s not the only one. On the morning of the cast’s interviews, Priscilla Quintana, who plays Ava’s friend Ruby on the show, woke extra early and tuned into, what else but true crime.

“I woke up at 4:30 a.m., and I didn’t have to be here until like seven, so I cleaned my whole kitchen (and) listened to the newest episode of ‘Crime Junkie.’ Why is it the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning,” she wondered aloud.

In one episode, Cuoco and Messina’s characters attend CrimeCon in Las Vegas — which is similar to Comic-Con but for fans of true crime. It’s an actual event, by the way, that will be held later this year in Orlando.

“I see the addiction of it,” Messina said who doesn’t seek out the genre but can get caught up by an episode of say, “ Dateline,” like the rest of us. He likes to use it as his own mental exercise to be prepared if things go south. “For me, it’s always a nice puzzle to figure out how people got into this situation and how can I not. And if I do, how can I be saved?”

Source: ABC News

I have updated the photo gallery with 293 HQ/MQ photos of Kaley Cuoco from the premiere of her new series, Based On A True Story on June 1, 2023!

You can see all the photos by clicking the previews and links below.

I have updated the photo gallery with 2,608 HD screen captures of Kaley Cuoco from her most recent movie, Meet Cute!

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The official trailer for the new series, Based On A True Story, starring Kaley Cuoco is now online! The show will premiere on Thursday, June 8th on Peacock.

I have updated the photo gallery with 23 photos of Kaley Cuoco from the annual Rock4EB Event on May 6, 2023!

You can see all the photos by clicking the previews and links below.