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.