Kaitlin Olson’s hometown ultimatum on ‘High Potential’: shoot in L.A. or get someone else
Kaitlin Olson’s hometown ultimatum on ‘High Potential’: shoot in L.A. or get someone else
The debut season of High Potential has been so successful, Kaitlin Olson has been praised for bringing broadcast TV back from the brink. But Olson was willing to give up if it meant a year of living away from husband Rob McElhenney and their two kids.
“I said, ‘My kids live in L.A. and I’m not doing it unless it’s shot here,” Olson revealed during ABC’s FYC panel for broadcast’s most watched new series in seven years, receiving a huge round of applause from a hometown crowd that has watched production leave Los Angeles at an alarming rate.
“If I’m signing on to the show and I know who’s running it, I know who’s directing it, I know who created it, I know what I’m going to bring to it — it’s going to be successful,” she explained. “I’m not moving across the country for the entire year, so we’ll do it here or get someone else, respectfully.”
Best known for her comedy chops due to her tenure on the beloved comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and her critically praised recurring turn on Hacks, Olson was surprised she was even considered for High Potential. During the panel alongside creator Drew Goddard and showrunner Todd Harthan, director Alethea Jones first admitted, “I remember getting the script and being like ‘They want me for a crime procedural?’” prompting Olson to respond, “Same girl, same.”
But Olson brought confidence to playing Morgan Gillroy: like her, a dedicated parent; less like her, an HPI, or High Potential Individual, possessing an extremely high IQ despite the messiness of her personal and professional life.
Morgan’s ability could unintentionally be presented in a way that could easily repel the audience, with untrained civilian Morgan essentially showing the LAPD how to do their jobs. But Olson said she has her own special talent for mitigating that pitfall: “I just think my cringe meter is like very finely tuned,” she said. “So anytime I’m starting to say something and I’m like ‘Ehhhhh, this isn’t coming out right. … It just feels wrong when I’m saying it out loud.’”
“I sit in my trailer and I go over the scenes for the next day,” she said, describing her process. “I say it all in my voice notes, because I have to listen to it all the way home. This is a very hard show to memorize. I say it out loud, and as I’m saying it out loud things will usually pop up.”
Perhaps the secret to success is her close and open relationship with helmer Harthan, especially when it comes to dialogue: “It’s such a relief to be able to be completely honest with Todd,” she said. “He’s open to it. There’s no ego, we both have the same goal which is to make the best show that we can.”
