For Kaley Cuoco, Sundays mean one thing: football.
Her fiancé Tom Pelphrey first made her a fan. “Because Tom is so obsessed with football, if I wasn’t going to join then I would be an outsider,” she says. “I needed to be included so I jumped in. And by the way, I’m so glad I did.”
Now, she describes football season as “very iconic and sacred” in their house: “Every hour of it is taken very seriously.” The rest of the year, Sundays are reserved for decompressing with reality TV and true crime. “Instead of calling it trash [TV], I call it my ‘girl TV,’” she says. “I love ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ Andy Cohen, I watch all his [series]. I’m watching every season of ‘Love Is Blind.’”
The actress, whose latest dark comedy series “Based on a True Story” is now streaming on Peacock, lives with Pelphrey, their daughter Matilda and a host of farm animals on a ranch outside Los Angeles. Here’s how she’d spend an ideal Sunday in L.A. when football is not in session.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
8 a.m.: Wake up with the dogs
A normal wake-up for me is 7 a.m. because we have four dogs who will not let me sleep past 7. It’s not even my daughter, it’s our stupid dogs. But my dream Sunday is sleeping in at least until 8 a.m. and having my coffee by myself with no one bothering me. Having coffee in the morning is my favorite thing in the entire world, I look forward to it.
I am a half-and-half girl. By the way, with all the bad ingredients in all this s— now, half-and-half is actually one of the cleanest things you can eat. I’m just saying! Tom looks at me like, ‘I cannot believe that you put that in your coffee.’ I’m like, ‘Read the ingredients in your oat milk! You think you’re being all healthy, look at that s—.’ Mine is just milk and cream. Organic, simple, done.
9 a.m.: Quick workout sesh
If I have a little time for myself, I’ll go to my yoga class. I go to CorePower and I sweat my ass off. I am not the type of person that can work out in my house alone. So I’ve been going for years and years and years.
I love Pilates as well. And I ride my horses too. I do multiple riding lessons a week and I personal train. I get very bored … like this morning, I personal trained and tomorrow I’m going to have a riding lesson. I definitely like to switch it up. But I always go back to CorePower because I love it.
11 a.m.: Weekly manicure
Sunday is also my manicure day. That is one of my favorite things to do. I go to Helen’s Nails in the Valley and I love it. I always have my nails done and that’s always on Sunday.
Helen’s been my girl for 18 years. I’ve followed her to five locations. I don’t go to anyone else. I don’t even get my nails done when I’m working on set. I’m very loyal, OK? She is the best of the best. And it’s not even that I need it, I [just] enjoy that time. It’s like my gym.
For every job, I pick a nail color. And so depending on what the job is, I will stick with that one color for the entire thing. It also helps with continuity. For Season 1 of “Based on a True Story,” I purposely had a crimson blood red color. It just went with the theme. For “Harley Quinn,” I wasn’t on camera so I got to do whatever the hell I want. But I think if that Harley was [live action], there would be 10 different colors and it would all be chipped. Not perfectly done at all.
Noon: Take turns with Matilda
When Tom and I are on duty with Matilda, a long time ago we smartly [decided to] take turns. We find it pointless for both of us to be trying to watch Matilda, because then you just have two people who are exhausted.
I’ll go in the bedroom and get in my bed — I’m not kidding, it could be 2 in the afternoon — and I watch trash TV for two hours. And then we switch and I come out and play with Matilda and Tom goes and does what he does.
2 p.m.: Jump around at Sky Zone
Sky Zone is so brilliant because they can’t get hurt. She [Matilda] really can run into anything, run up the wall, fall into the pit and she’s laughing [the whole time]. And she loves to bounce, she thinks bouncing is so cool. So anything like that, she freaking loves it. And by the time she gets home, she’s so tired. We love it there.
3 p.m.: Erewhon run for dinner prep
I always feel like groceries just [get up and] leave. Everyone’s eating everything constantly. Sometimes we do delivery, but I think it’s weird, people picking out your food, so I do grocery shopping as well on Sundays.
I hate to admit the love I have for Erewhon. It’s completely overpriced. You go in, buy a $40 smoothie. I admit it is crazy. With that said, I’ve bought apparel there. Like, I have a real problem. I buy sweatshirts, I’ve got shopping bags. Tom’s like, “What are you doing?” I think they have the best food, the best ingredients. I love my shopping experience. Mr. Erewhon, wherever that person is, Mr. and Mrs. Erewhon? Brilliant. I don’t know how you did it.
5 p.m.: Dinner in front of the tube
I love cooking dinner. And I’ll make stuff for Matilda for the next day and prep some of her food. On Sunday when I have time, I’ll cook something that Tom will want. Usually he’ll put a steak on. And since I don’t eat meat, he’ll make the steak and then I’ll make the sides and we’ll sit and have dinner.
Tom’s very simple, like me. He wants meat and potatoes. I don’t want the meat, but I want very simple dishes. So we’re not very adventurous in our [eating habits] although now I see it in my daughter. She wants rice and beans and nothing else. I’m like, Oh, my God, I’ve created a monster.
And we love TV, so we’ll watch some TV while we’re eating. We just started the Cate Blanchett show on Apple, “Disclaimer.” It’s Alfonso Cuarón’s show and he’s never done TV before. It’s fantastic. We did “Menendez Brothers” for the last few weeks. One of our special rooms in our house is a theater, so we love to watch movies down there. We watched “His Three Daughters” the other night, fantastic. We watched “Blink Twice,” we hadn’t seen that and loved it.
9 p.m.: Bedtime!
I used to go to bed very early. And I will be honest, if Tom’s gone, I will get in bed at 8:30 p.m. It’s not that I’m going to sleep, I want to get in bed with my dogs and watch my bad TV. That’s what I love to do. But that’s obviously not every single night. So then, when he’s here, I stay up later because he’s such a night owl and I hate that there’s all these hours I miss hanging out with him, so I try and stay up a little later. We’ll watch a movie and go to sleep closer to 11 p.m., but when I’m alone, I’m in bed before 9.
