In the season 8 premiere of "The Big Bang Theory," Kaley Cuoco's character Penny debuted a shocking haircut … and apparently, the actor sort of regretted it in the first place.
For the previous seven seasons, Penny was known for her flowing blonde locks — and as Cuoco revealed in Jessica Radloff's oral history "'The Big Bang Theory:' The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series" (via Us Weekly), she didn't necessarily tell anyone about the big chop. I"I just f**king cut my hair off and didn't tell anyone," Cuoco said. "I did it for an independent film called 'Burning Bodhi,' and basically showed up to our 'Big Bang' wrap party with short hair."
Not only did Cuoco need to cut her hair for "Burning Bodhi," a 2015 film that co-starred Sasha Pieterse ("Pretty Little Liars") and Meghann Fahy ("The White Lotus), but she was also hoping to save herself some time in makeup before long days on the CBS sitcom.
"I thought by cutting my hair, I would spend less time in the hair and makeup chair, even though I loved the hair and makeup team," Cuoco explained. "And then in my attempt to spend less time on my hair, that decision bit me in the ass and it took way longer to do my short hair. I was like, 'This is the worst decision! What was I thinking?!' I thought I was cutting off all this time, because I hated going in and getting ready. That's why I was wearing my hair up so much in season six and seven. So, then I cut it and it ended up being more work because it wasn't easy to style."
Kaley Cuoco's huge haircut was shocking to absolutely everybody on set at "The Big Bang Theory," apparently … including creator and showrunner Chuck Lorre. "We didn't have a heads-up on the haircut! When you think back on it, it was startling. I wish we had been in the loop," Lorre told Jessica Radloff, saying that he would have warned Cuoco about other starlets and the fallouts they experienced after their own big chops.
After bringing up major TV favorites like Jenna Elfman's Dharma on "Dharma & Greg" and Keri Russell's "Felicity" on her eponymous show — both of whom got pixie cuts that surprised their fans — Lorre went on to tell Radloff that he genuinely believes that a character's appearance is part of their overall draw. "The audience had become infatuated with the character, and not just the character's behavior and flaws and strengths, but in how the character looked," Lorre explained. "They became iconic, and to disregard that audience attachment was a mistake. And I witnessed it firsthand. It would have been the same thing if Johnny [Galecki, who plays Leonard on 'The Big Bang Theory'] had come to the wrap party and had shaved his head."
Onscreen, Chuck Lorre and Kaley Cuoco eventually figured out how to work the haircut into the show — in fact, they address it right in the season 8 premiere, "The Locomotion Interruption." During the previous season finale, the stubborn Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) is shaken by several different life events … including Penny and Leonard's engagement, his sudden desire to change his research focus at CalTech (and the university's refusal to allow that), his girlfriend Amy's (Mayim Bialik) request that they move in together, and his favorite comic book store burning down. As a result, he goes to the Pasadena train station and decides to simply leave his life behind, and when the audience meets him again in the season 8 premiere, he's stranded in Arizona after getting robbed.
When he returns to Pasadena with Leonard and Amy, he says that he's ready for any new changes — only to see Penny's short haircut, panic, and immediately walk back out of his appointment. Clearly, the show had fun with the situation, and Lorre said that it wasn't really a big deal. "I love that Kaley recognized it for what it was," he admitted. "She's very self-aware, and we survived it. As bumps in the road go, that was a small one."
"I had fun with it, and I did like it," Cuoco said of the dramatic chop. "I'm sure it was being negatively talked about all over the place, but I didn't pay as much attention to what people were saying on social media then."
Hair grows back, and obviously, Kaley Cuoco's did — and by season 9 of "The Big Bang Theory," she's finally moved on from the severe pixie cut to a sharp little bob. By the 12th and final season of the series, her long locks are back again, but perhaps the reason that Penny's super-short haircut looms so large over the series is that it's prominently featured in one of its most disappointing episodes.
In the season 9 premiere "The Matrimonial Momentum," Penny and Leonard impulsively decide to elope in Las Vegas without any of their friends or loved ones present … and the whole thing is fraught thanks to Leonard's admission that he kissed another woman named Mandy Chen (Melissa Tang), who works as a marine biologist at CalTech. This reveal sours the entire thing, and throughout the episode, Penny's also rocking that pixie cut. Because the episode hits such a rough note — especially as a season premiere — it unfortunately makes Cuoco's haircut all that more memorable.
"The Big Bang Theory," including all the episodes with Penny's haircut, is now streaming on Max.
