It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Kaitlin Olson has spoken out about the difference in playing her long-running character Dee versus taking on a new character for her hit series High Potential.
It was August 4, 2005 when Olson made her first appearance as Dee, aka Sweet Dee, in the hit sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Almost 20 years on, Dee and the gang - made up of Olson's real-life husband Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, and Danny DeVito - are still going strong, with the series currently on its 17th season.
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With almost two decades of experience playing Dee, Olson admitted to UNILAD: "I don't need to really work on Sweet Dee at all."
The actor made the admission while promoting her new show, the ABC and Disney+ series High Potential, in which Olson plays a cleaner-turned-police consultant named Morgan, who has an IQ of 160.
Her character's unusually high intelligence means Olson has some pretty complex lines in the show, and as a result she had to dedicate a lot more time to perfecting Morgan than she does working on Dee.
Olson explained: "I don't even really look at what scenes we're shooting [on It's Always Sunny] until the morning of, because she's just second nature to me. And also, we do a ton of improvising, so we're doing a lot of playing around on that show, which is also spectacularly scripted.
"But yeah, I don't have to prepare too much for Dee, and I do have to prepare a lot for this show."
In her new series, Olson's character finds herself helping out detectives as her meticulous brain is able to pick up on little details that those with a lower IQ might not spot.
It makes for a gripping watch as a viewer, but the actor admitted that playing someone of exceptional intelligence comes with its risks, as she doesn't want to get anything wrong.
As a result, Olson has found herself asking the writers if they double check their facts before Morgan has to deliver them.
"I don't envy them," Olson admitted. "This has got to be such a challenging show to write, because you don't want the police to look stupid or like they're not perfectly capable of doing their job.
"So her stuff has to go above and beyond that, or come from personal experience somewhere. So I just am so grateful for my writing staff."
"Some of that stuff is really hard to memorize, and things are much harder to memorize when you don't fully understand them yourself," Olson continued. "And when Morgan does get going and is explaining what happened and she's excited about it, she's talking quickly, and there's no improvizing your way through that.
"So those scenes can be really challenging, but I love a challenge."
The first episode of High Potential landed on Disney+ in the UK on January 23, and it quickly captivated fans - one of who described it as 'the best thing [they've] ever watched'.
Another wrote on Twitter: "Just started High Potential on Disney and I’m so angry they’re releasing it weekly, cuz I could binge this so easily. @kaitlinolson is a delight in everything she touches."
The good news is, High Potential has already been confirmed for a new season, with Olson revealing that future episodes could offer more insight into Morgan's background and family life.
In the meantime, the first season is available to stream on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.
Topics: Disney, Film and TV, Celebrity
Emily Brown