Bypass paywall: https://archive.is/TGhgE
Although Olsen says CBS was reluctant to cast her in the first place, she also claims that talks had continued for about a year when she had a phone call with the revival’s showrunner, its producer, and the son of Sherwood Schwartz, who created the original Brady Bunch. On the podcast, Olsen referred to the exchange with the three execs as “the Inquisition,” and said they asked her questions about her political views. Olsen said that the trio had “drank every drop of the Kool-Aid” and maintained that “by now, we know that the vaccine was not safe or effective.” (VF has reached out to a representative for Lloyd Schwartz for comment.) A source close to the project says that the issue with casting Olsen was not due to her support for Donald Trump, but rather her “controversial comments and hate speech, which she has noted she still stands by.”
According to Olsen, the revival was going to thrust the Brady family into the modern era. One of Jan’s children was going to be trans, and one of the Bradys was going to have a Black spouse. This, perhaps unsurprisingly, did not sit right with Olsen. “To that I was like, Come on, let’s not be so obvious,” said Olsen. “Let’s make this Black spouse somebody who has a really close relationship with another Brady, and that’s how this Brady met them. Give them a foundation so this isn’t a token position.”
This isn’t the first time Olsen has allegedly lost a gig due to her conservative views. Olsen was fired from LA Talk Radio’s Two Chicks Talkin’ Politics after using anti-LGBTQ language in 2016.
… Ri-ight. I’m sure that this proposed show, with six grown-up Brady kids, six Brady spouses, and a decent number of Next Gen Bradys will have plenty of time for yet another character … I’m sure that wouldn’t be a token position at all …
Actually, while I was writing this, I had a thought and I went back and re-read her comment:
It’s interesting, isn’t it? She mentions Jan specifically, and “another Brady” who could have a black spouse, but she’s pretty coy (“this Brady”) about who was originally going to have the black spouse. Who wants to bet it was her?
Regardless of who it was going to be, the idea that a character marrying a black person their siblings weren’t already friends with makes that black person a token is a bizarre claim.