Susan Olsen has opened up about the one gripe she had with playing Cindy Brady on the beloved 70s sitcom The Brady Bunch.
Appearing on The Real Brady Bros podcast this week, where she revealed she was gravely injured while filming the pilot, the 63-year-old star said she didn’t appreciate playing a dumbed down character.
Chatting with former co-stars Barry Williams and Christopher Knight, who played her TV brothers, she looked back on a scene from the pilot episode that illustrated Cindy’s dense mind.
In the episode, Cindy and sisters Marcia and Jan talk to their mom Carol ahead of her wedding. Carol says she feels butterflies, to which the youngest Brady replies, ‘Are you sleeping with your mouth open, mommy?’
‘That’s just how my career was and it was something I had to accept,’ Olsen said about her tendency to play dull roles.
Susan Olsen has opened up about the one gripe she had with playing Cindy Brady on the beloved 70s sitcom The Brady Bunch; pictured in 2019
Appearing on The Real Brady Bros podcast this week, where she revealed she was gravely injured while filming the pilot , the 63-year-old star said she didn’t appreciate playing a dumbed down character; pictured in 1969
Williams, 70, weighed in: ‘Do you understand that you were the cutest person in the world? You’re just adorable.’
And 67-year-old Knight, 67, added that the former child star Susan had a ‘doll face.’
Williams also said that he and Knight were aware that Olsen was ‘a little bit uncomfortable with the nature’ of her character.
‘You’re so much smarter than the character and you’re so much edgier than your character. But here it is right there. You’re saying the most idiotic thing imaginable,’ he observed.
Susan’s 28-year-old son Mike has even noticed that she was pigeonholed into a particular type of part, she shared.
She once appeared in a Disney movie in which her character meets a British person and asks, ‘Why does he talk funny?’ Her on-screen siblings tells her he’s English, to which she replied, ‘What’s English?’
Recalling her son seeing the film, she shared: ‘And my son said, “So you always play the stupid child.” And I said, “Mike, you’re right. I did.” And he goes, “Wow. Do you think you had anything to do with that?” I’m like, “Well, I hope not!”‘
However, Olsen’s mom had a positive perspective, finding her daughter’s ditzy lines ‘cute.’
Olsen then quipped, ‘She doesn’t have a functioning brain, but she’s cute.’
‘That’s just how my career was and it was something I had to accept,’ Olsen said about her tendency to play dull roles; the cast pictured in 1973
L-R: Former Brady Bunch co-stars Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, Susan Olsen, Mike Lookinland, Christopher Knight and Barry Williams in 2019
Elsewhere in the episode the television star described being left with a swollen face after lighting equipment fell directly onto her while working on the Brady Bunch pilot.
‘My eyes were black. I mean, I had two black eyes. My nose was swollen. My face was swollen,’ the actress said as she looked back at the show’s beginnings on the re-watch podcast.
The incident happened the day before the cast gathered to film the pilot episode in 1969. Susan, just seven-years-old at the time, had been getting her makeup done when she was struck.
‘The saddest news is that we didn’t sue Paramount, because I would have made more off of that than the show,’ Olsen said candidly.
