American actress Kaley Cuoco on her most bizarre experience on a flight

Kaley Cuoco plays a flight attendant in the series 'The Flight Attendant'. Photo: HBO Asia

Actress Kaley Cuoco – best known for her role as Penny in popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory – has a new show called The Flight Attendant.

Based on a novel of the same name, it stars Cuoco as a New York-based flight attendant Cassie Bowden, who handles the first class passengers on an airline's international flights.

The series kicks off with Cassie working on a flight from New York to Bangkok, and meeting a handsome businessman (Michiel Huisman) on the plane. The same evening, she hangs out with him in Bangkok, only to then wake up with the man next to her very much dead and she’s without a clue how it all happened.

During a Zoom interview session with Asian journalists that StarLifestyle participated in, Cuoco was asked if she’s had any bad experiences while taking a flight.

The 34-year-old said: “You know I travel a lot. But the one story – it’s not really a bad experience – that kind of reaches out of my mind is, I was on a flight and I was watching a movie very intently and kind of not focusing on anything going on.

“And this flight attendant came up – and I think to this day she's mortified that this happened – but she thought it would be very funny to, all of a sudden, go ‘(knock, knock, knock) Penny? (knock, knock, knock) Penny?’, and really loud above my head.

“And I jumped, like 10 feet in the air. She goes, ‘Oh my God. I'm so sorry. I've always wanted to do that. I love The Big Bang Theory.’ And I was like Oh my God. I thought the plane was going down. It was a disaster. There was nothing enjoyable. She felt bad. I felt bad. And I guarantee she's never knocked on anybody ever again on a flight.”

'(Knock, knock, knock) Penny?' is what the character Sheldon does in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory whenever he crosses over to his neighbour's apartment, which happens to be Penny, and knocks on her door.

The eight-episode limited series The Flight Attendant premieres on HBO GO with three episodes on Nov 26, followed by two episodes on Dec 3, two episodes on Dec 10, and the finale on Dec 17.