The Bloody Always Sunny Injury That Had Kaitlin Olson's Bone Exposed
Kaitlin Olson has literally put her blood, sweat, and tears into the 16 seasons and counting of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." The actress has been a main cast member since the boundary-pushing comedy series first started airing on FX back in 2005. Her performance as Sweet Dee has been a major highlight of the show as well as the actress' career, and it's no accident — the actress is incredibly hardworking and talented. Unfortunately, Olson had her own fair share of accidents on set. On one unlucky shoot, the actress sustained an injury so severe that she had to be rushed to the hospital.
"Like, I went to the emergency room this year," she revealed to Yahoo News in 2013. "I ripped my leg completely wide open on a steel grate that we were running on. It was a mess. Poor Glenn [Howerton] was like, 'I'm sorry, I have to walk away. I can't see this.' It was a lot of blood." Luckily, Olson was not quite as squeamish as her co-star and was able to maintain a level head. "But I've had two babies, so I was extremely calm," she continued. "I was like, 'Alright, well, this is a real problem, but let's get the ambulance here, and I'll apply pressure, and we'll figure this out. Don't worry, everyone. It's just a skin thing.' You could see my bone, though ... my shin bone." Talk about a serious case of road rash.
The "Hacks" actress didn't let the injury stop her from giving it her all on shoots. In fact, Olson has since performed far riskier stunts than running on a metal grate.
Olson's worst injury wasn't a stunt
Part of what makes Dee's physical comedy so great — and another reason why Olson is so often injured — is that Olson does all her own stunts on "It's Always Sunny." One of her most dangerous and hilarious feats appears in the season 4 episode "Who Pooped the Bed," in which Dee tries to run out of a high-end shoe store in heels that are too small, wobbles across the curb, topples over, and smashes her head into a car door.
"We had a stuntwoman do it, and it didn't look very real, and then Kaitlin did it, and actually ran into the car, probably almost breaking her neck," said series co-creator Charlie Day to Buzzfeed. "It's just one of the funniest moments of physical comedy I think in the history of the show."
Olson actually hit her head so hard that it left a real dent in the door, according to her husband and "It's Always Sunny" co-star Rob McElhenney, per The Always Sunny Podcast. The actress "needed to see a chiropractor many times afterward," she told Yahoo News, "but whatever, it worked out." Despite the medical bills, she has no regrets.
"I don't want the stunt double to do it, unless it's like a quick thing because that's part of the acting. I want to do that," she explained to Buzzfeed. "There's a lot of acting that happens in between the running out and the head-hitting."
Being pregnant doesn't stop Olson from going all out
Some of Olson's riskier stunts have put her at risk of severe injury. Thankfully, that's why there are people on set like three-time Emmy Award-winning stunt coordinator Marc Scizak. As much as he admires Olson's work, it's his job to keep her safe. "On bigger gags where she's going to get hurt, we have to kind of reel her back a little because she just goes for it," he admitted to The New York Times.
In the 2017 episode "The Gang Goes to the Water Park," years after her emergency room visit, the actress continued to push her limits. Dee gets stuck in a waterslide, causing a pile of kids to fall on top of her and smash her face into the tube. Olson "didn't feel like it sold right and [she] wanted to go harder" after many painful takes, Scizak recalled.
Even being pregnant doesn't stop Olson from going all-out in her performance. She was six months pregnant while shooting the season 6 "It's Always Sunny" episode "The Gang Buys A Boat," when she delivered one of the best moments of physical comedy in the show: her impression of an inflatable man dancing in the wind. Unfortunately, it wasn't half as fun to shoot as it was to watch.
"I was so hell-bent on moving my body weight the way that thing was moving," Olson recalled on The Always Sunny Podcast. "And I was pissed off, because secretly I was six months pregnant and I couldn't bend backwards as far as I wanted to, and, like, snapped myself back up. And I remember the whole time just being angry, like, "This isn't working. This isn't working. I have my stupid baby in there. It's ruining everything."
Olson is a klutz, but it works to her advantage
So, if the stunts aren't the problem, why is it that Olson gets hurt so easily? Well, by her own admission, Olson is a tried and true klutz. "If there is a tack on the floor, she will step on it," her co-star and series co-creator Glenn Howerton told Buzzfeed.
In under two decades, Olson has broken no less than 10 bones, McElhenney revealed on The Always Sunny Podcast. McElhenney even requested that she test her bone density which, for better or for worse, revealed that nothing was wrong with her bones. The actress was "proud" of this discovery, but as McElhenney pointed out, "that's worse."
Olson, however, seems to have come to terms with her clumsiness. "It just means I fall hard," she concluded. McElhenney, on the other hand, has never broken a bone in his life— is this the new olive theory? She even walked into a door just before season 16 began shooting and showed up to set with a black eye. But despite the many drawbacks of being spatially challenged, Olson's bizarre physicality has been a huge asset to the show and helped to inform her character's funniest dimensions.
"Our idea of Dee was not as physical as Kaitlin is," McElhenney revealed to Buzzfeed. "It's something we sort of found with the way she carries herself."
"I'm very long," Olson added. "I'm very unaware of how long my limbs are and I bash into things a lot, and Rob makes fun of me a lot... I'll do something and Rob will tell me to do it again and I didn't even know it was funny."
Even though her klutziness is a bit of a liability, but there's no doubt about it — Dee simply wouldn't be Dee without Olson's gawkiness.