How A Broken Back Left ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Kaitlin Olson Worried She Would ‘Ruin the Whole Show'
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Kaitlin Olson may famously rival only Bugs Bunny as the master of physical comedy, but serving as the IRL equivalent of a Looney Tunes legend isn’t all carrots, “What’s Up, Docs?” and varyingly-elaborate levels of drag.
Suffering several injuries throughout her It’s Always Sunny tenure — ones ranging from running “into a wall” on the first day of filming Season 16 to ripping her leg “completely wide open” while on set — the FX(X) icon was once convinced she’d slipped on her last banana peel, worried she would she would “ruin” the show after breaking her back during a Fourth of July picnic in the late aughts.
“My neighbor decided to pick me up. I was just sitting there drinking beer and probably minding my own business,” Olson recalled of the injury, which occurred right before It’s Always Sunny’s fourth season. “He picked me up way over his head, and then he dropped me on the cement on my hip, and it broke my lower back.”
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The accident was bad enough on its own — “it sucked,” she remembered, per Showbiz Cheat Sheet — but heading back to set was no walk in the park either (not that she could walk in any kind of parks at the time). “There (were) a lot of people standing by with wheelchairs and pads for different seats and golf carts,” the comedienne described her experience shooting Season Four, noting that one episode involving her falling down stairs had to be pushed back as “it didn’t seem smart.”
Even sans stair stunts, Olson said her “first week back was a little rough.” “I kinda overdid it a few times,” she admitted, explaining that she only started to feel more like herself around the time filming began for “The Nightman Cometh.”
“I feel good,” the actress added back then, inadvertently quoting her on-screen sibling. “I’m just happy I didn’t ruin the whole show.”
