Charlie Day on being known as a comedic actor: “It was definitely actor first and foremost. I saw myself as a guy who can act funny”

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Charlie Day opens up about the parallels between himself and his character and the transition to the big screen.

Day, who plays illiterate glue-sniffer Charlie Kelly on the FX comedy about a group of friends who run a South Philadelphia pub, says his character is a caricature of his own insecurities. “Perhaps a lot of that comes out of my own fear and insecurities of my own intelligence,” he explains about Charlie Kelly’s illiteracy. “Being in such a well-educated family, perhaps I was always nervous about that. So it was good to make light of that in the show.” Still, he says, “I can read.”

Before It’s Always Sunny, Day wasn’t so set on comedy. “It was definitely actor first and foremost. I saw myself as a guy who can act funny. Still when I go on talk shows or whatever, I worry that I have to live up to some kind of comedic persona.”

As he moves to bigger productions like recent theatrical release Horrible Bosses, a farcical tale of three friends who plot to off their, um, horrible bosses, Day says that he’s becoming more relaxed in terms of worrying about the minor aspects of filming. “(It’s Always Sunny co-stars Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton) and myself are probably three of the most opinionated men you’ll ever meet on the set. We’re not phoning it in when it comes to that show. Whether it’s a script or a prop or whatever it is, we have opinions and we really believe in affecting the production as a whole. So it’s very difficult to then hand all that over to other people. Once I really let go, it was relaxing.”