‘Big Bang Theory’ Star Says Botox Disaster Left Her ‘Frozen’ While Filming

Kaley Cuoco, 40, confessed her first round of Botox treatments didn’t have the effect she desired. Instead, the jabs left her face virtually frozen.

Cuoco received injections of the popular neurotoxin while filming The Big Bang Theory, where playing Penny made her an A-list sitcom star.

“It was deep into the show, like halfway maybe. I just wanted to do a little Botox,” she told Amanda Hirsch on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast.

“I did my forehead and all this stuff. And I was so excited,” Cuoco recalled. But she soon realized her carefree decision had a major consequence: her face seemed literally frozen in time.

“It was the same week there is a scene where I have to, like, really do this thing with my face [and] I could not move,” she said, adding, “I was literally doing these jokes, and nothing moved. My forehead didn’t move, and it looked like I was trying to move it.”

The purpose of Botox injections is to paralyze the targeted muscles, thereby minimizing existing wrinkles and preventing new ones from forming. However, most patients’ goal is to achieve a naturally youthful appearance—not a single, fixed facial expression that never changes.

Cuoco continued, “The fact that no one said anything, they probably were thinking it… I couldn’t believe how bad it looked. And that’s when I thought, ‘whoa’, like we don’t need the… Let’s calm it down.”

The Big Bang Theory ran on CBS for 12 seasons, from 2007 to 2019. The show’s sixth season aired in 2012, making Cuoco approximately 26 when she received the heavy-handed Botox injections.

Cuoco continued to get Botox injections, but approached the placement with more caution than her initial foray into the popular anti-aging treatment.

“I reined it in, and now I don’t do my forehead,” she said.

Still, she remarked, “I love a little Botox.” Cuoco went on to point out the places where she gets the neurotoxin injected.

“I do it here,” she said, pointing at the area on the outside of her eye, where Botox is sometimes injected to prevent crow’s-feet.

“I do it on the neck a little bit,” she said, noting that she always had lines on her neck, which “drove her crazy.”

“I get them filled a little bit,” she explained, continuing, “I have to tell you, it totally smoothed it out. I don’t have to do it as much anymore.”

Hirsch also asked Cuoco about her nose job and breast implants, which she spoke publicly about in 2016.

Patients with breast implants must typically replace them approximately every 10 years. Cuoco told Hirsch that she is now on her second pair, and has no plans to stop.

“I would love a third pair,” she said, adding, “Best decision I ever made.”