#kolsonedit

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Kaitlin Olson photographed by Bode Helm for Philadelphia Style

“I find her to be so ridiculous, it’s pathetic,” Olson says of Dee. “But acting her out is so hilarious. If I were a character that was winning all the time, it would be so boring. I don’t know how you would sympathize or empathize with that person.”

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Kaitlin Olson by Buzzfeed

Dee’s actions don’t fall victim to the conventions usually dealt to women in comedy. Dee was Bridesmaids before there even was a Bridesmaids. She is crude beyond belief at times. She flails her arms and spits venomous, half-baked threats at anyone within earshot. She falls — a lot — and fake-vomits so convincingly that it’s become a running gag on the show. “I’ve never heard somebody do a gag so funny,” Howerton says. “You know, suppressing puke, it’s just a weird gift she has.”

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Kaitlin Olson by Buzzfeed

“We were blown away by how funny she was,” says Day. “I can’t think of an overall impression other than our general excitement that we found someone who was really right for this part.”

Oddly enough, it was McElhenney — to whom Olson is now married — who was less than convinced about her. During the audition, Olson accidentally left out a critical line in the script they’d given her, and McElhenney was nonplussed, to say the least.

“I left the room and Rob was like, How did she leave out the funniest line that was in there? and he didn’t want to cast me,” Olson says. “Rob, who I’ve now married, had to be talked into hiring me.”

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Kaitlin Olson for Buzzfeed

“I can’t tell if I relate to her [Dee] anymore or if I’m just so used to playing her and love her so much that it’s second nature,” Olson says.

With the photographer and stylists gone, Olson finally seems more at ease, sitting at a long wooden outdoor table in her backyard and tucking her legs into her chest.

“There’s a certain element of desperation and wanting people to like you… I was really shy. But I think because that was so sad for me when I was little, that it’s so hilarious and sad now, that I relate to that. I like this character’s way of handling it, way more than how I handled it. Which is, like, aggressively and angrily. Maybe it’s cathartic. I don’t know.”

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Kaitlin Olson at the premiere of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.