Similar to their The Big Bang Theory counterparts, Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki were romantically involved during the sitcom’s initial years. Although it didn’t last long, with the two eventually deciding to revert back to being friends in the spring of 2010, interestingly, there was a notable surge in their intimate scenes in the show.
For a while, Cuoco and Galecki felt the upsurge in their s-x scenes post real-life breakup was showrunner Chuck Lorre’s way of having fun, which the TBBT creator outright denied.
Chuck Lorre Had No Intentions to Mess With Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki
Although Cuoco and Galecki are closer than ever, the notable spike in Penny and Leonard’s s-x scenes in the aftermath of their split-up had Kaley Cuoco convinced that Lorre was messing with them.
Later addressing the humorous accusations, the showrunner clarified this wasn’t the case, stressing there was no room for such acts and their lone goal was to make the show great.
No. Not at all. Making a good show has no room for f***ing with anybody. There’s no, ‘Let’s mess with Kaley and Johnny’. The goal was to make a great show and make every minute of every episode count. And that was the only goal. We don’t have that kind of freedom to risk a TV series that you put your heart and soul into to mess with somebody’s head. No.
Responding to the TBBT creator’s rebuttal, Johnny Galecki joked “I guess that was pretty egotistical of us to think that”, stressing that he was going to sleep easy that night.
Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Cuoco Had a Hard Time Filming Their Onscreen Breakup Scene
But while filming the abundance of intimate sequences after their break-up was a bit infuriating for the actors, it was the onscreen break-up of Penny and Leonard that took a toll on them. Nikki Lorre, who served as a director, writer, and second unit director on TBBT, recalled Cuoco and Galecki being devasted during the filming of their character’s initial split-up, as they felt the writers “were reading too much into their own relationship”.
In one of the first episodes that Anthony Rich directed, they wrote a scene of Penny and Leonard breaking up, and the scene was in the laundry room, and it was really hard for Johnny and Kaley because they felt like they [the writers] were reading too much into their own relationship and the words weren’t crediting Leonard and Penny’s relationship as much.
However, after the writers assured that wasn’t the case, the two filmed the difficult scene without losing their composure.
The Big Bang Theory is available to stream on Max.