It’s been two years since It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s fourteenth season ended, and with so much anticipation — including a quarantine-filled 2020 — television’s longest-running live-action comedy is going to explode onto our screens December 1 in ways we’re not ready for, and I cannot wait. The excitement is only heightened by hearing tidbits about what to expect in Season 15, including Kaitlin Olson describing a particularly excruciating day of filming that involved her becoming a swamp monster.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia often puts The Gang into grueling situations, and Sweet Dee has certainly taken her share of the abuse. Literally anything for a laugh, right? She’s been waterboarded, set on fire and run head-first into the side of a car, just to name a few of the incidents. And she’s not slowing down for Season 15, as Kaitlin Olson began describing her quite uniquely challenging day of filming to EW by saying:
We shot an episode this season where Dee sinks in a bog, which I was very excited about, because it sounds hilarious. I also knew it was going to be miserable, which most of my hilarious things are.
Kaitlin Olson went on to describe a huge bog that was built on a Disney ranch which was then filled with an unknown — but organic! — sludge. The night they filmed the scene, it was freezing cold, Olson said, and her job was to sink into the bog, emerge "looking like a crazy swamp creature” and run into the woods. We're thinking swamp bird here — Bird! — but creature is also fitting.
Right before they shot, the assistant director warned Olson about a bunch of holes in the ground between the bog and the woods, telling to her to avoid the holes while being sure to stay in the shot — not the easiest assignment when you’re covered head-to-toe in freezing muck, Olson soon learned.
I go under, come up, open my eyes, and they fill up with whatever this bog is made of. I can't see anything, I could barely walk, I'm trying to remember where the holes are, I half-scream my lines. All I'm thinking is, 'I'm not doing this again, so don't trip and ruin it.' Of course I nailed it on that first shot, thank you very much... I had Charlie [Day] with me, and he guaranteed that it was funny, so I was like, 'Great, we can go home.' And that was my most excruciating day on set this season — and there's something like that every year.
Of course Kaitlin Olson got the shot in one, because Sweet Dee is a fucking badass, and she will eat your babies, bitch! How miserable to think of her having to get back in the bog and go through all of that again.
This scene does sound hilarious, and I for one can’t wait to witness all of the antics Dee gets into with Dennis, Charlie, Mac and Frank this season. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 15 premieres December 1 on FXX, with streaming available the next day on FX on Hulu. Be sure to check out our 2021 TV Schedule to see what else is premiering through the end of the year.
