Why Rob Mac Didn’t Want To Cast Kaitlin Olson On It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia

Although Kaitlin Olson has long won fans’ hearts as the lovable Sweet Dee on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” she nearly never landed the role at all. During a recent panel for the 20th Anniversary celebration of the long-running sitcom (attended by /Film’s own BJ Colangelo) as part of The Paley Center for Media’s acclaimed PaleyLive series, the cast explained how Olson nearly blew her chance. As Rob Mac (who plays Mac on the show, in addition to being co-showrunner) put it, “She didn’t say the funniest line!”

Olson confirmed, “I left one line out of the g*ddamn audition! That he was so precious about. In my head, I was like, ‘That’s the one funny line he put in there. I’ll put that one aside. I’ll make everything else funny.’ And he was like, ‘Well, why didn’t you put that one funny thing in?’ and he got hung up on it.”

The other cast members on the panel confirmed Olson’s story, with Glenn Howerton (who plays Dennis, and is a co-creator of the show) confirming that Mac had “dismissed her outright, and [he] was a big advocate.”

Olson explained how even though Mac was upset about the line change, Charlie Day and Howerton had her back. “Everyone else saved the day and everything’s fine now,” she said. She added, “The short answer is they welcomed me in right away, and I felt like we were a team from the beginning. And when we started shooting, you know, the director would yell cut and we would all kind of get together and talk about what worked and what didn’t.”

It seems hard to believe that Rob Mac at one point didn’t want to hire Olson, especially given that Mac himself ended up marrying Olson a few years later. It’s hard to imagine an Olson-less “It’s Always Sunny,” especially given her knack for physical comedy. Her character is always getting hurtand Olson always sells those tumbles 100%.

Glenn Howerton especially seems grateful to have Olson on the show, as he sang her praises at that recent panel. “[Kaitlin] has this quality that I know I’m always seeking in an actor, which is she can do the funniest, craziest thing and somehow keep it grounded,” Howerton said. “It feels real even though it’s insane. She just makes it real, and that’s a difficult thing to pull off. That’s a real gift and I know I saw that initially … I think we all saw that [Olson was] able to play this insane character and keep it real.”

Although Howerton’s praise of Olson at the panel seemed a little too pure and sweet for most of the cast to handle, Olson herself was quick to match his energy. “I still to this day feel like the luckiest person in the world,” she said. Talking about her chemistry with the rest of the cast as early as season 1she said, “I always felt bad for the director because I feel like we felt like a team from the beginning, and we all had the same sense of humor and the same sensibility.”