Kaley Cuoco survived 'Vanished' action, missing daughter Matilda

In 2021’s HBO series "The Flight Attendant," Kaley Cuoco’s alcoholic air crew member goes wide-eyed after waking up next to a dead man in a hotel room.

Five years later, "The Big Bang Theory" star, 40, looks similarly startled in the mystery thriller "Vanished" when her archeologist Alice Monroe finds a bloody, just-murdered body.

“I love a big-eyed moment,” Cuoco tells USA TODAY, explaining that her partner of three years, "Task" star Tom Pelphrey, loves her ocular expressivity. “Tom calls me Frog Eyes. He’s like, ‘Another role for Frog Eyes.’ And it’s true. I really depend on those moments.”

Actually, those moments depend entirely on the true-crime-podcast-devouring Cuoco, who has now played three regular women thrust into Jason Bourne spy waters via those two shows plus Peacock's "Based on a True Story." (Cuoco was executive producer on all three series.)

In the four-part MGM+ series "Vanished" (weekly starting Feb. 1), Alice’s boyfriend (Sam Claflin) mysteriously disappears from a high-speed train in the French countryside. Alice is framed for murder while desperately searching for the humanitarian worker she thought she knew − and loved − in gritty Marseille, France.

Cuoco excels at playing the untrained but savvy learn-on-the-job detective − the type who has trouble jiggling the doorknob when escaping an assassin but still manages a reasonably daring window escape.

"'The Flight Attendant' was similar, putting a normal person into extraordinary circumstances and trying to be Sherlock Holmes," Cuoco says. "I like the shows where the world is spinning around you. That’s what I watch and what I like to play."

Cuoco sprinted through 'Vanished' − and loved the rats

Cuoco credits the "Vanished" window escapes to Monette Moio, her look-alike stunt double from "Flight Attendant," who is now her best friend. “I don’t go anywhere without her, and we look like twins," she says.

But when it comes to the fight scenes and sprinting in a full-length rain jacket, that's all Cuoco.

“The amount of running on this job − I saw all of Marseille in a month. If I went back there tomorrow, I could tell you where everything is. Because all I did was run past it. It was crazy.”

The work took a toll on Cuoco, who turned 40 in November after the shoot.

"I was like, 'You guys, I'm almost 40,'" she says. "This used to be fun and nothing would hurt the next day. The amount of Advil I took on this job. I'm not sure how many years I have left doing that sort of physical stuff."

Daughter Matilda stayed home with Tom Pelphrey during 'Vanished'

Cuoco missed her family during her first overseas project since giving birth to her daughter, Matilda Carmine Richie Pelphrey, in March 2023.

“When you don’t have kids, you don’t care. Life's a constant adventure,” says Cuoco, who went ahead to France to check out the scene. “The minute I got to Marseille, it was amazing, but it was a young man’s game. I’m like, this isn’t the place for a 2-year-old. There wasn’t enough for her to do. So I stuck with that decision.”

Pelphrey watched Matilda at home stateside while Cuoco hit the Marseille streets.

“Luckily, my partner was amazing,” she says. “He was like, ‘Go. Be there. Fully immerse yourself.’ I couldn’t have done it without him.”

There were frequent calls when Matilda wasn’t booked.

“There were as many FaceTime calls as she could handle,” Cuoco says. “But half the time she was busy, like in swim class or a playdate. I was like, ‘Can you tell her to call me when she’s available to talk?’ But you want your kid not to be wondering where you are all the time. She had her daddy and was very happy.”

Daughter Matilda judges fashion, is not a 'Big Bang' fan yet

At nearly 3, Matilda is starting to express a need for some personal space.

"She’s hysterical. When she’s doing anything, like eating, she’ll be like, ‘Mom, I need my privacy.’ It’s her new thing. And she gaslights me because I end up leaving the room."

The little girl is a frequent fashion commentator (“she critiques all my outfits”) and an avid lookout for Pelphrey, even when her dad is on a passing "Task" billboard.

“There were 'Task' billboards all over our area, and she’d spot her daddy from a mile away,” Cuoco says. "She’d go, ‘There’s Daddy!’ I’m like, 'How did she even see that?'"

Matilda is still coming around to noticing Mom's work on "The Big Bang Theory."

“If 'Big Bang' is on randomly, I’ll be like, ‘Hey, look, there’s Mommy,’” Cuoco says. “She’ll look up and then absolutely zero. She’d rather watch "Baby Shark." It’s all about 'Baby Shark.'”

Cuoco shoots down 'Big Bang' fan theory on Penny

Nearly six years after "Big Bang" signed off on CBS after 12 seasons, Cuoco has only big love for the career-altering role.

“We were on that show for 12 years, and it’s a huge reason why anything happened to me professionally afterwards,” she says. “I owe a lot to it.”

Perhaps because of Cuoco’s foray into crime and espionage (she played a secret suburban assassin in 2024’s "Role Play"), "Big Bang" fans have begun to speculate that Penny was secretly a spy on her neighbors, including theoretical physicist − and Season 9 husband − Leonard (Johnny Galecki).

“I don’t buy into that,” Cuoco says. “What I love about Penny is her genuine, authentic love for these guys. There was nothing behind it. And she didn’t gain anything from it. Well, she gained a husband at the end of it.”