Fans of The Big Bang Theory can expect several satisfying loose ends to be tied up in the May 16 series finale, but star Kaley Cuoco said she’s happy the show will refrain from solving one conspicuous mystery — the one of her elusive maiden name.
Cuoco told TVLine at the CBS series’ wrap party last week that she’s not disappointed viewers will never learn her character Penny’s maiden name.
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“I kinda love it,” she said. “Cause so many things are revealed in the last few episodes, you get a lot of satisfying moments, I’ll tell you that. But that I kind of love.”
“I love it too, ’cause Johnny [Galecki] always says, ‘It’s Hofstadter! It’s Hofstadter, that’s her last name,’” she said, referring to his character Leonard’s last name.
Cuoco opened up about the spontaneous group hug the cast members shared last week when they realized they were filming their final scene together.
“I think it was our realization it was our last group scene together,” she said. “We were shooting and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, this is the lsat scene we’re gonna shoot.’ And we all just went, ‘Oh my God’ and we all just huddled in and we all just looked at each other and said, ‘I love you.’ We all just said ‘I love you’ a million times, and I don’t know, it was just a real intense realization.”
Cuoco and her co-stars have been admittedly emotional during recent weeks as they filmed their final moments on the show. Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon Cooper, told TVLine that the group hug was “tough.”
“That was the first… miniature death. Because everything’s a last, suddenly. And that was the first of the evening’s lasts.”
Galecki told TVLine about the wacky way he said goodbye to his character, Leonard.
“I took a little walk by myself around the [soundstage] after we wrapped and kind of said goodbye to Leonard — as odd and crazy as that sounds,” he said during the show’s wrap party. He said he even gave way to a few tears after becoming overpowered with emotion.
“I was so worried about [co-star] Kaley [Cuoco] and her being overcome with emotion,” he said. “I ended up being the quivering puddle of tears on the floor. Starting off the show last night was tough. But then you gotta do your damn job, and put the tears aside and try to make people laugh. It was a terribly, terribly moving night.”
Kunal Nayyar told Ellen DeGeneres on her eponymous talk show last Friday that he was also an emotional roller coaster last week.
“I don’t think there’s any word in any language ever written that could describe what I’m feeling,” he said. “I’m feeling all of it. I’m feeling sad. I’m feeling exhilarated. I’m feeling tired. I’ve cried out, I’ve laughed out, it’s all of it.”
He said that while he was “a little overwhelmed,” it all finally hit him after the final taping.
“I had held it together pretty well,” he said. “But then the last scene we were shooting, they added a joke, and I said it and I thought I would get another chance at it because we shoot most takes twice. But no, I got it and they said, ‘All right, moving on.’ And then that was the last words I was going to say as my character.”
He continued, “As I was walking up to my trailer, with every step the realization that those were the last words I would ever say as Raj began to really sink in,” he said. “I cried. I cried a lot.”
The Big Bang Theory airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
