Kaley Cuoco Sobs After Earning First Golden Globes Nomination for ‘The Flight Attendant’

Kaley Cuoco is feeling emotional at the news she was nominated for her first-ever Golden Globe. The actress, upon receiving news of her nomination for Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy in HBO Max’s comedic thriller, The Flight Attendant, shared her raw reaction to Instagram, revealing just how much the nomination means to her. In two tearful videos, Cuoco is speechless as the nominations in her category are announced before saying, “Oh my God!” to herself over and over. In the second video, she stares in disbelief at the screen as she begins to cry while celebrating the honor.

“Thank you @goldenglobes #hfpa I will never ever forget this moment and I can’t stop crying … so proud of my entire team [Flight Attendant]!!!!!” she captioned the Instagram video, adding a plane emoji for good measure. Cuoco’s 12-season run as Penny in The Big Bang Theory was one that made her a household name but never netted her any individual recognition in the decade-plus on the CBS sitcom.

The Flight Attendant, which is based on Chris Bohjalian’s 2018 novel, stars Cuoco as Cassie Bowden, a flight attendant who awakens after a drunken night with a stranger (Michiel Huisman) to learn he has been murdered. Unsure of what happened or her possible role in his killing, Cuoco’s character has to dig deep to see if her mysterious past has anything to happen with the crime that happened right under her nose. Competing alongside Cuoco in the Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy category are Lily Collins for her role in Emily in Paris, Elle Fanning for The Great, Catherine O’Hara for Schitt’s Creek, and Jane Levy for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. The Flight Attendant is also nominated for Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy, which is also a second nomination for Cuoco, who is an executive producer on the series.

Before her nomination, Cuoco told Entertainment Tonight that she enjoyed diving into a darker character than she has played in the past. “I loved everything about her,” she told the outlet. “Obviously, this girl struggles and she’s got a lot of emotional turmoil, and as we find out in the eight episodes, a lot goes back to her childhood, which is something she’s been running from her entire life. And alcohol is what makes her escape from what has truly happened to her. The trauma of waking up [after] this murder, it’s just adding on and bringing her back to her childhood.”