Kaley Cuoco not only shares a love for true crime with her Based on a True Story character Ava Bartlett, but she also shares her experience with motherhood. The actress and her on-screen persona were both pregnant in Season 1. Now, in Season 2, Ava is navigating the first few months of parenthood while Cuoco, who became a mom herself last year, can once again relate.
"A lot of it was cause of some of the stories that I had about some mommy [and] me classes I had taken with certain moms that I had been around," Cuoco said in an exclusive interview with Parade. "And I was like, 'Wow, this is not for me.'"
"And also, you kind of just want to do everything right and by the book," The Big Bang Theory alum added. "I love that we kind of showed that for one second, and then immediately we're like, that's not even realistic. Be who you are. Ava threw it out the window. She's like, I'm still involved in my true crime. This is what I love, and by the way, so do I."
Cuoco, who welcomed her first child, daughter Matilda Carmine Richie Pelphrey, in March of 2023, pointed out that "there's no such thing as a perfect mom out there."
"I really wanted it to kind of look like that," she said of Season 2 of her dark comedy, "Especially at the beginning, because it's chaotic when you first have a kid."
Cuoco shares parenting responsibilities onscreen with Chris Messina, who plays Ava's husband, Nathan Bartlett, in the Peacock series, which sees the new mom investigating a new string of murders in Season 2.
Continue reading to find out what Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina had to say about the second season of Based on a True Story in an exclusive interview with Parade.
Chris, you have older kids. Did playing Nathan this season take you back to those early days?
Messina: It did. That kind of just insular place that you are when you first have a kid, it's like the outside world doesn't make sense, and you're just trying to keep this baby alive, you know. Just having no idea how to do it. I remember, I was telling Kaley, taking my kid home, my wife and I, putting him in his room in the car seat and just looking at him being like, "Now what?" And so, yeah, it did bring back that uncertainty.
Cuoco: He's still in the car seat. They've done nothing about it.
Messina: We gotta take him out.
Casey Durkin/PEACOCK
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I've seen all 8 episodes, but for readers who haven't, how do you think Ava and Nathan's relationship has changed in Season 2?
Messina: In Season 2, they're further apart, actually. The stress of the baby, the stakes of the baby…Thankfully, during the course of the season, we start to find our way back.
Colleen Hayes/PEACOCK
While this story is wild, something I found that the show really captured is how hard it is for adults to make friends, and parents to make friends. Could you relate to that?
Messina: We don't have that many friends, right?
Cuoco: [Laughs]
Messina: I think you could relate to that.
Cuoco: You're my only friend in the world.
Colleen Hayes/PEACOCK
This season shifts from podcasting to TikToking. How do you think the change in medium affects Ava? And what are your thoughts on TikTok?
Cuoco: We had to go that way because that is where the world is at. I mean, [people are] still podcasting, but … I am not on TikTok. That's not my thing. I'm on Instagram. That's it. And I see friends on [TikTok], and I see my friends' kids now on there, and I'm like, "What is that?" And you feel like such a nerd because it's moving so quickly and there's so much information. So yeah, I think we had to capitalize on that a little bit. I like how she kind of thought she was the queen of TikTok for a hot second, until it blew up in her face.
[To Chris] Do you know anything about TikTok?
Messina: No, what's that? No, I don't know anything about it. I really don't. I stay off social media as much as possible.
That's fair. It can be overwhelming. I don't want to give spoilers, but, I think it's in the second to last episode where that character is asked what do you want, and she says content.
Cuoco: Yes! Yes! Content. We all want content. One second, I need to get a selfie of us real quick [gestures taking a selfie with Messina].
Messina: [Laughs]
Cuoco: No, it's true. I mean, some of the most famous people in the world are literally TikTokers and YouTubers and all this stuff.
Colleen Hayes/PEACOCK
Is it safe to assume there is going to be a third season? Because you guys left us there with a big cliffhanger…
Cuoco: It's a great cliffhanger.
Messina: Yeah, we'd like to tie it up and complete their journey. But I love the way it ends this season. I really like it. I think it's asking for more.
Cuoco: Yeah. I do, too. We would love to do another season. We talk about it all the time. No one's asked us.
If you were to put one of your past characters like Penny [from The Big Bang Theory] or Danny [from The Mindy Project] in Nathan and Ava's situation, how do you think they would handle it? Or would they be way in over their heads?
Cuoco: I think a Penny could figure it out. She's street smart. I think she'd actually be really good at this sort of thing.
Messina: And Danny would, he would mess it all up. Yeah. He'd mess it all up. Different than Nathan messes it all up, but he'd mess it all up thinking that he could handle it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
All 8 episodes of Season 2 of Based on a True Story premiered Nov. 21 on Peacock
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