Brady Bunch star Susan Olsen reveals her biggest gripe with playing stupid Cindy Brady

Susan Olsen didn’t like dumbing herself down on “The Brady Bunch.”The actress, 63, appeared on “The Real Brady Bros” podcast hosted by her TV brothers Barry Williams and Christopher Knight last week and looked back on the impact of her role as the ditzy Cindy Brady.Williams told Olsen that she was “the cutest person in the world” while portraying the youngest Brady sibling, before explaining that he and Knight, 67, knew she “was a little bit uncomfortable with the nature” of her character.“You’re so much smarter than your character.

You’re so much edgier than your character,” Williams, 70, said to Olsen.“You’re the least like Cindy.

Your personality is the least like their character than any of us.”The group discussed a scene from the 1969 pilot episode of the sitcom where matriarch Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) tells her daughters she feels butterflies, to which Cindy replies, “Are you sleeping with your mouth open, mommy?”“Here it is right there.You’re saying the most idiotic thing imaginable,” Williams said of Olsen’s TV moment.He then jokingly called Cindy “stupid,” as Olsen explained, “That’s just how my career was.

And it was something I had to accept.And it was really emphasized when my son was old enough to start watching the things I was in.”Olsen recalled the time her son, Michael, watched a Disney movie where Olsen’s character didn’t know what being British meant.“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!'” the actress recalled.“But my mother always said, ‘It’s cute,'” she added.Olsen quipped: “She doesn’t have a functioning brain, but she’s cute.”The actress played Cindy for the sitcom’s full run from 1969 to 1974.She explained on the podcast how playing Cindy as a child affected her in real life.“...