Exclusive: Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina Confront a Serial Killer in ‘Based on a True Story’

Showrunner and creator Craig Rosenberg (The Boys) first had the idea for Based on a True Story years ago, inspired by true crime’s explosion in pop culture. “There’s been podcasts and docudramas and documentaries, murderers becoming celebrities, and celebrities becoming murderers,” he says. “I wanted to write something within that world—how can I really explore some of the more absurd places that this obsession takes people?” After bumping into his old friend Michael Costigan, Bateman’s producing partner under their Aggregate Films banner, Rosenberg pitched the Emmy-winning Ozark alum directly. “Jason’s very good, as you can imagine, with coming up with very specific character-based points of view on material, given his background as an actor,” Rosenberg says.

The tone evolved further with casting; at one point during production, Rosenberg told Cuoco he was surprised by just how funny the takes kept turning out. “They really let me be me,” Cuoco says. “They let me do my Kaley thing.” This is her first series since The Flight Attendant, which earned her Emmy nominations for both producing and acting, and it felt like a natural extension of that work. “I told Craig, ‘I feel like we did a lot of this in Flight Attendant, and I’m very comfortable in the genre,’” she says. “But this felt even stranger and a little quirkier…. All of it just felt like the right fit for me, and it ended up being one of the most enjoyable acting experiences I’ve ever had.”