Susan Olsen has revealed she realized she hated acting at age 23 after playing Cindy Brady on the sitcom The Brady Bunch. The former child star played the youngest Brady child for the full run of the hit sitcom from 1969 to 1974.
The actress admitted taking the wrong career path in an interview with ReMIND Magazine published on Friday, her 65th birthday. Reflecting on her career in television, she expressed regrets about not pursuing filmmaking instead and opened up about her childhood dreams.
The revelation comes after Olsen claimed two years ago that a "woke" reboot of The Brady Bunch was axed over her conservative political views. In the years after the sitcom concluded, she starred in various spinoffs before stepping away from acting to pursue alternative careers.
She retreated from mainstream Hollywood as a teenager and returned to school. Olsen later worked as a graphic designer, a radio talk show host, and an animal rescue advocate.
Realization and Career Regrets
"For reasons I can't even explain, I continue to do acting or to pursue it," Olsen told the publication earlier this year for the interview published on her birthday. She added, "I think to please my mother, even when I was like 18."
Olsen recalled having an opportunity to study in college after being accepted to the University of Southern California. "I had an opportunity when I was accepted at [the University of Southern California], even though my grades were not quite good enough," she said.
"I do not know why I didn't go ahead and join the film school, because i must have known that I had an inkling for that," she continued. "And now I know that's really where I belong, and it's just weird to me that I didn't know it [then]."
The Daily Mail reached out to representatives for Olsen for further comment but has yet to hear back.
Olsen explained that the realization occurred after landing an acting job. While on her way home with the script in her hand, she said it dawned on her and she told herself: "Oh my gosh, I hate acting. What am I doing? This is terrible."
She completed the acting role before deciding to step away from the profession. "Of course I did the role, but I called my teacher," she recalled.
"I called my agent and said, 'I can't do this.' It wasn't my medium. And then immediately things started working out well for me as a graphic artist," she said.
Musical Ambitions and Bass Playing
Before she began acting and got her big break on The Brady Bunch, Olsen revealed that she once dreamed of being a musician and becoming a rock star. "I did more dreaming than practicing," she admitted.
"I think in my head I didn't even consider being a filmmaker because I knew I was going to horrify my mother by becoming a rock star," she added. Olsen started out as a guitar player before discovering she was better suited for bass.
"This was before bass became the token female position in the band," she continued. "And you didn't see girls playing bass, but it felt so much more natural."
She said she was in a band with her friend and that making music with them made sense. "The only band I was really in, I was kind of best friends with the drummer so it just all made sense," she admitted.
Return to Television and Reunion Projects
Although Olsen retreated from acting for a bit, she later returned for several television spinoffs of The Brady Bunch. She starred in The Brady Brunch Hour, The Brady Girls Get Married, and The Bradys.
In addition to the sitcom spinoffs, she took part in the HGTV series A Very Brady Renovation in 2019. Olsen also reunited with several of her costars from The Brady Bunch for the Lifetime Christmas movie, Blending Christmas, in 2021.
