When you think of Kaley Cuoco , "dark" and "brooding" doesn't necessarily come to mind to describe the bubbly Big Bang Theory star. But the actress is stretching her serious muscles, thanks to her upcoming indie drama, Burning Bodhi, which debuted at the Austin Film Festival this week. Cuoco chatted with People magazine about her latest endeavor, which she said, "Took me out of the norm."The flick, which follows a group of old friends faced with a death, was a quick, but serious film for the actress. "I only shot for nine days, and I was kind of there the whole time in my head. The town was a little dark, the whole thing, the energy just made you feel that way," she explained.Cuoco—who split from her husband Ryan Sweeting after nearly two years of marriage back in September—said that she was "kind of in a dark place" while shooting Burning Bodhi. And that the "serious" film called for a certain type of work environment. "There wasn't that much messing around," she said. In other words, probably no exclamations of "Bazinga!" on the set.The actress, who said that she's proud of her work in the film, talked about how she created her character's dark look to match the mood. Cuoco explained, "I was painting my eyes black, I cut my hair, and every morning I was putting new pins in it. It was fun, I just really wanted to look completely different than I normally do...I wanted it to look super real." (The Burning Bodhi Facebook page has some images from the movie, so you can see just how dark and anti-Penny Cuoco was.)