Star of Classic ’70s CBS Show Said She ‘Didn’t Work for 10 Years’ Because She Was ‘A Pain in the A—’

Michael Learned has no regrets when it comes to being a “pain in the a—” on set — even if it meant taking a hit to her career.

The 86-year-old actress, who won three of her four Emmy Awards playing Olivia Walton on The Waltons, opened up about leaving the beloved CBS show behind in a recent interview with Steve Kmetko on his Still Here Hollywood podcast.

Leaving the family drama behind after eight seasons for the grittier medical series Nurse, Learned said that on the set, “I was a pain in the a—, I think.”

Learned revealed that while she was a big believer in the show, she often pointed out issues she saw in the scripts, which she thought failed to accurately depict life in New York City. “There were no hot tubs in Harlem, in New York,” she explained. “There are locks on the doors. There were bolts and locks on every door, no matter what part of New York you’re living in.”

The way she would ask for script changes didn’t always go over well, as Learned began to develop a reputation as being “difficult” to work with. “Yeah, I offended a lot of people, and I didn’t work for 10 years,” she said on the podcast.

Despite its impact on her career, Learned said she didn’t regret speaking out. The actress also revealed she had no regrets about leaving The Waltons after its eighth season, despite how close she became with her co-stars.

“On the one hand, I wept because we were such a family, even the crew, we were all really close and like a family. But on the other hand, I got tired of [it],” she told Kmetko, confessing that the show “didn’t know what to do with me” at a certain point.

Creator Earl Hamner Jr. would tell her that he wanted her in more shots, “so they’d have me ironing and going, ‘And then what happened, kids? And then where did you go? John-Boy, more coffee?’ And things, just to have me in the scene. But as an actor, it was just boring.”

Despite her exit from the show, Learned is “eternally grateful” for The Waltons. “It put my kids through private school,” she shared, adding, “But at the time I complained a lot, you know, ‘I want to be home with my kids,’ and here I was with these lovely kids, but they weren’t mine.”