Kat Dennings pushed back on a bra-only scene during her “2 Broke Girls” run.
Dennings, 40, recalled the confrontation in a TikTok video where she described a Season 1 or 2 episode requiring her and co-star Beth Behrs, 39, to run around the apartment set wearing only bras. The show, which aired on CBS from 2011 to 2019, made the two actresses into household names, but Dennings noted she lacked leverage at that early stage. “We were young and very lucky to be on a show that was successful,” she explained in the TikTok, adding that she didn’t have “a lot of pull” to make demands.
After the table read, Dennings approached showrunner Michael Patrick King directly. “I’m gonna need you to take out the bra scene, or have us wearing clothes during the scene,” she told him. King, she claimed, pushed back immediately. “No I mean, this is the scene,” he replied, according to her account.
Dennings fired back with a blunt ultimatum that carried the day. “You don’t pay me enough for a bra scene,” she said she told him, and the sequence was subsequently removed from the episode.
The “Thor” actress drew a broader lesson from the exchange. “Never underestimate yourself, is the moral of the story,” she noted in the TikTok. “And they weren’t paying me enough, although I don’t think anyone could.”
Dennings has been open about body image pressures throughout her career. In a January 2025 interview, she recalled receiving brutal feedback from auditions in her early years, with her manager relaying that casting teams thought she “wasn’t pretty enough and you’re fat.” The actress, who married musician Andrew W.K. In 2023, has frequently discussed Hollywood’s treatment of women’s bodies.
Earlier this week, Dennings marked the sitcom’s 15th anniversary with a candid Instagram post. “Beth and I both left with PTSD but also money so that’s nice!” she wrote in the caption, offering a darkly comic assessment of the show’s legacy.
“2 Broke Girls” premiered in 2011 to nearly 20 million viewers and ran for six seasons and over 130 episodes. The comedy followed Max (Dennings) and Caroline (Behrs) as waitresses in a Brooklyn diner, their friendship anchoring the series through various romantic and financial schemes. The show’s broad humor and blue-collar setting made it a consistent ratings performer for CBS, though it also drew criticism for relying on ethnic stereotypes and raunchy gags.
The bra scene demand fits a pattern of Dennings establishing boundaries despite her junior status. At the time of the table read, she had already appeared in films including “The 40 Year Old Virgin” (2005) and “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” (2008), but television represented a different power structure with writers and showrunners controlling day-to-day content.
Dennings’ TikTok revelation arrives as Hollywood continues grappling with on-set nudity and intimacy protocols, issues that have gained formal structure through intimacy coordinators only in recent years. During the “2 Broke Girls” production era, such roles were virtually nonexistent, leaving actors to negotiate directly with creators.
The outlet reached out to Dennings, King and CBS for comment.