Taking The Mick to the masses
Juggling two hit comedies and two children are all in a year’s work for actress Kaitlin Olson, discovers James Croot.
Kaitlin Olson has traded the sunny climes of Philadelphia for a dysfunctional family in Connecticut and she’s loving it,
The 41-year-old actress, best known for playing Deandra ‘‘Sweet Dee’’ Reynolds on the longrunning It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, now has another prime-time character for audiences to enjoy.
The Mick‘s Mackenzie ‘‘Mickey’’ Murphy is an irresponsible grafter whose life is transformed when she is forced to become the parental guardian for her sister’s three wealthy children after their parents flee the country to avoid fraud charges. Olson, who is also the show’s executive producer, recently talked to
about her latest role.
What was the appeal of for you?
I loved that it was about this woman who is very much in charge, but a little bit broken underneath. It’s a classic fish-outof water situation. It’s created by two writers who were on Philadelphia [Dave and John Chernin] and I always thought they were extremely talented. That’s the main reason why I took it seriously. I know how funny those guys are and I know what they are capable of. But I have two little kids [6-year-old Axel and 4-year-old Leo] and I didn’t know that I was ready to do two shows at the same time. However, I just really fell in love with it.
So how are you managing to juggle this, and family life?
We shoot Sunny in the springtime and we began shooting this last fall. We’re figuring it all out and doing alright.
Have your real family met your new, onscreen one yet?
Oh yes – absolutely. I work very long hours, so my kids come to me when they’ve finished pre-school and kindergarten for the day and hang out. Jack [Stanton, who plays her youngest charge Ben] is 8 and my kids love him. It’s really cute. We shot an episode where he gets in a bicycle accident and he had the whole side of his face bloody and scraped up. My kids were obsessed with it and wouldn’t let him leave and were telling everyone they met about his ‘‘accident’’. But they know all of the cast. It’s my second family.
Do you think they picked up any good or bad habits from your acting family?
I’m not interested in my kids wanting to act at all. I’ve never spoken to an actor who wants that. I think we’re all terrified that’s something they might want to do. ‘‘Oh , it’s too brutal – don’t do it.’’ If they want to act, they can do plays at school.
What’s it like working with such a youthful cast?
It’s certainly a different experience. On Sunny, we’re all grown-ups and friends and although the scripts are fabulous once we get a scene we just play around, listening to and improvising with each other. Here, the kids just want to please me and do it right. So it’s a little bit more technical. I have to help them carve out what each scene is. But it’s all so sweet and wonderful. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to produce this. I wanted to cast the rest of the cast. I picked those kids and worked with them a lot during auditions. They are all wonderful. They have completely different energies and all bring something special and unique to the show. As does Carla Jimenez [who plays the family’s maid Alba]. She is comedically gifted and she and I can improvise a lot – which is fun.
It’s great to see such an edgy, network sitcom with women in the two main roles. Do you think something like this could have been made even a few years ago?
I would like to think that people would have been open to it a few years ago. I think there’s been a long, slow, steady road paved for women and I think there are a lot of people I can thank for that. I’m glad it’s something people are excited about right now. I don’t know why it took so long – I certainly have a lot of people in my own life who are extremely funny women, but I’ll just embrace it and be grateful for the fact that it’s here. I love working with funny men and women. I wasn’t setting out to do a female-driven comedy, I was just setting out to do a funny show. And I feel perfectly comfortable being at the helm of it and being a female is secondary – for me.
The Mick
TVNZ2. 8.30pm, Mondays, Rolling back the years
For the most part, The Rolling Stones’ Blue & Lonesome (★★★★) is a wonderful return to the sixties white-boy blues of England. But in some respects, it’s almost a wasted opportunity because they rely on too many tracks written by Chicago blues singer-songwriters. Little Walter (aka Walter Jacobs) and Willie Dixon dominate, with the other tracks written by Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Burnett), Magic Sam (Samuel Gene Maghett) and the like. Still, for the most part it is an incendiary disc, with some of the best harp playing by Jagger in years and there is the inevitable swagger of Keith Richards guitar work. Sometimes a vanity exercise like this exceeds expectations. An album worth embracing.– Colin Morris
Still an Enigma
In a recent interview, Enigma (aka Michael Cretu) talked about a progression and not wanting to copy himself in this his first new album in eight years. Yet, to be honest, all I hear on The Fall of a Rebel Angel is a repeat of previous albums – the same rhythmical lines, pulses and whispered vocals, the same Gregorian chants, swelling keyboard riffs and faux poetry scattered among the 12 tracks that we are led to believe makes perfect sense if you surrender to the experience. The weird thing is that this is not an unlistenable album, especially if you like Jean-michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, Deep Forest and the many others that walk the same path. – Colin Morris
Weta’s Dragon
With a sluggish plot and unconvincing composite animation, 1977’s Pete’s Dragon was not a Disney classic. So it’s perhaps no surprise that out of all the recent live-action reimaginings (Cinderella, The Jungle Book), this New Zealandshot tale (★★★) had the most potential to improve on the original. It does that seamlessly thanks to writer-director David Lowrey’s tinkering with the storyline, dropping the songs, tightening the narrative and handing his main character over to the wizards of Weta Digital. – James Croot
Catton’s Rehearsal
A tale full of weighty themes and dramatic artifice, Alison Mclean’s somewhat loose adaptation of Eleanor Catton’s 2008 debut novel The Rehearsal (★★★) never truly compels, despite the presence of plenty of Kiwi acting luminaries. Mclean and writer Emily Perkins seem caught between trying to create a more cinematic story from Catton’s book and remaining true to her prose – some of the descriptive, evocative speeches feel like they’ve come straight from there. – James Croot