Kaitlin Olson’s husband, Rob McElhenney, can sometimes be her biggest critic, which is why she was “so nervous” for him to watch her new show, High Potential.
“We are both very critical of entertainment and projects. I was very nervous to show it to him,” Olson, 49, told Us Weekly exclusively at the High Potential premiere at No Vacancy in Hollywood on Tuesday, September 17. “He loved it.”
The actress added: “I wouldn’t be lying if I didn’t say that was a giant relief.”
Olson said she trusts herself when picking new projects, but having McElhenney’s support for this show was a plus.
“When he loved it as well, I was like, ‘OK, we’ve got something great here,’” she gushed. (Olson and McElhenney met while working together on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. They got married in 2008 and have since welcomed two sons, Axel, 14, and Leo, 12.)
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On her new ABC series, Olson stars as Morgan, a single mother of three with a genius-level IQ who gets recruited by the Los Angeles Police Department to help solve crimes.
“Honestly, [I] did not want anything to do with an hour-long drama at all, but when I read it, I loved it so much,” Olson told Us. “I thought the character was amazing. I love a well-written, fully intriguing crime drama. I just was so excited that at the heart of it is this beautiful character who’s so strange and unique and complex and so uniquely herself and unapologetically a wonderful mom.”
The biggest selling point for Olson was that she didn’t have to “give up” her It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia role as Dee Reynolds in order to play Morgan.
“If I had to pick one or the other, I don’t know what I would have done, but I didn’t have to,” she said. “It’s so wonderful to be able to play all these different, beautiful female characters who are strong in their own way.”
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Olson reiterated that Morgan is “such a wonderful mother and a powerhouse,” which allowed her to relate to the character.
“She’s a single mom and she’s figuring it out and she’s scrappy and she doesn’t have everything together, but she’s making it work,” she said. “There’s something so wonderful about that.”
High Potential airs new episodes Tuesdays on ABC at 10 p.m. ET.
Reporting by Lanae Brody
