Kaley Cuoco: 'Harley Quinn' Is a Big Leap From 'Big Bang Theory'

For Kaley Cuoco, life without The Big Bang Theory hasn’t really started — despite the fact that the nerds rule comedy series recently came to a close after 12 seasons and that her new show, the animated Harley Quinn, is debuting on the DC Universe streaming service this October.

“It’s weird,” Kaley admits while attending the annual Television Critics Association gathering, “because I almost feel like it’s still the summer hiatus, so I would be on this break anyway. It still feels normal, but I think in a few months, when I’m supposed to go back to the show, it’ll hit me probably a little bit more like, ‘Oh, this is a new life now. Things are a little bit different.'”

In some ways, it’s pretty ironic that the actress would go from Big Bang, which was all about embracing the comic book world among other geek pursuits, to a show that features her as the ex-girlfriend of the Joker and a part of the Batman universe. “It felt natural,” she points out. “We’ve created our own audience for this over the last 12 years, so the fans have already been supportive of these sort of decisions and these sort of characters, and it’s believable that I would be part of it. I think the stage has been set.”

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Becoming Harley

“I was still shooting Big Bang when [Warner Bros’] Peter Roth called me, so it was all happening at the same time,” Kaley adds. “But it felt like the right move and it’s just been a blast, to be honest. And another opportunity for me to mark my producing skills, which is a new path I’m wanting to take. So this is the start of that.”

The way things went down, she notes, is that Roth, a dear friend, called her cell and said, “Do you want to be Harley Quinn?” Her response? “I was, like, ‘F–k, yeah, I do!’ He goes, ‘That’s the right answer, because that’s basically what she says a lot.’ He goes, ‘We’re going to do this animated show…’ I was so flattered that he called and that’s really what happened. Then I met with these guys [the other producers] and was like, ‘This is going to be so much fun.’ Then it naturally progressed from there. But it started with that call from Peter.”

Harley Beginnings

Harley as a character was introduced back in the 1990s as a part of Batman: The Animated Series, initially introduced as a sidekick to the Joker and eventually becoming his love interest. Her background is that she’s actually Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel, M.D., a psychiatrist working at Arkham Asylum (where Batman’s rogues gallery is pretty much placed every time he arrests them) who just happens to fall in love with the Joker, deciding to work alongside him as Harley. Their relationship, particularly when it turns “romantic,” is the epitome of dysfunctional, with her being pretty psychotic in her own right. Although the character has appeared in various animated series and films, she is probably best known as portrayed by Margot Robbie in the film Suicide Squad, a role the actress is reprising for next year’s Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).

The Joker & Harley Quinn

On the new series, the oftentimes abusive relationship between Harley and the Joker is something being addressed. Explains executive producer Justin Halpern, “The idea was that we’ve all been in relationships with someone that we felt maybe wasn’t right for us all the way to someone that was toxic for us, and how you extricate yourself from that is really what this show’s about. How do you get out of that kind of relationship, and then figure out, ‘What am I gonna do now that I’m out of it? What do I want? I’ve been living somebody else’s life for a really long time.’ And so that is something we really wanted to tackle. We didn’t want to shy away from it.”

The Evolution of Harley Quinn … Sort Of

Interjects Kaley, “The relationship with Joker actually seems completely realistic to probably a lot of people’s relationships at one moment or another — not as violent, hopefully — but she does what she wants to do. I do think she goes through some growth. It’s almost like a few steps forward and then, like, 25 steps back. Like, then she falls back into her old ways again and can’t really help it. But I think in her building her crew and her friends, she’s kind of learning what real friendships are. I mean, these friends are more family to her than her real family, we find out later in the series as well. And she learns that it’s important and she actually loves these people, and there’s tons of growth for her. But then, you know, she falls into her old ways and that’s just Harley Quinn.”

Despite the Murders, She’s Not That Bad

Harley, points out Justin Halpern, despite her acts of villainy and violence, is someone who can get away with a lot in the show. “The nice thing is that most of the time she’s going up against other villains who are worse than her,” he says, “so I think we can root for her in that way. She is a killer, but generally I think we’ve built it so that those dying at her hands all deserve it. Clearly. She fights Robin in the show, which is pretty amazing, and she’s never going to kill Robin. She has her own moral compass. It’s just way skewed in a direction that most of us probably wouldn’t think was correct. But we did try to make sure, ‘What is Harley’s moral compass? Would this violate it? Would it not?’ Those were always questions we were asking in the writers’ room.”

Harley’s View of the DC Universe

Executive producer Patrick Schumacker notes, “We do have our own rules in this show. Also, from the get-go the pitch was the show is from Harley’s perspective. On the one hand, Gotham is going to be a lot brighter and more Technicolor, because this is through her eyes. Also, the way that we portray the heroes, which I think are ordinarily lionized in the films, we can have a little fun at their expense, because, again, this is from Harley’s POV, so Batman is a real buzzkill; a wet blanked. And Superman is a guy who tells dad jokes.”

The Joy of Cussing

One of the fun parts of the show for Kaley, particularly following a dozen years of network restrictions on The Big Bang Theory, is the fact that Harley tends to drop the F-bomb in the series. A lot. “It’s very freeing,” she laughs. “I f–king love it! It has been so much fun, because I have a little bit of a potty mouth myself, and it’s been great to be able to just scream and cuss and fight and be the badass that Harley Quinn is. Day to day, though, when all of these things are coming out of my mouth, I’m, like, ‘Oh my God, you need to calm down. You are not Harley Quinn when you’re out getting coffee.’”

Harley Quinn begins streaming on DC Universe in October.