While seriescreator and star Dan Levy told Parade.com earlier in 2021 that “anything that’s going to happen” as far as a Schitt’s Creek reunion is concerned is not “going to happen for a minute,” Murphy has an idea in mind for a spinoff… and let’s just say, we’d love that journey for Alexis! “I think what I would like is a full Alexis spinoff where I get to just travel around the world,” the Kevin Can F**kHimself actress says. “Maybe recreate every single story that I told on Schitt’s Creek, but all of the celebrity name drops have to be a part of the show.” Though Murphy noted, “It might be a bit of a high price point, which might make Dan reluctant, but I’m gonna keep pitching.” Over the course of Schitt’s six seasons, Alexis recalled a number of wild stories from her past, including going on a blind date to Bali with LeonardoDiCaprio, casually seeing Prince Harry, meeting Beyoncé in Mykonos, texting Zac Efron when she wanted a booty call and planning Megan Fox’s bachelorette bash on a tiny island off the coast of Montenegro (where nothing was illegal). Which of Alexis’ many tales is Murphy’s favorite? “I think the one that I enjoyed picturing the most is being held hostage on David Geffen’s yacht by Somali pirates,” the TV star shared. “As terrifying as that sounds, I do think that it probably turned into a really fun hang… I think everyone ended up enjoying themselves.” Aside from pitching a fun new journey for her Schitt’s Creek character, Murphy also opened up about her personal birth control journey that led her to Phexxi. Continue reading to learn how the actress’ hormone-free birth control has allowed her to write her own rules, plus what she had to say about her role in Season 2 of Russian Doll and more!
As most women know, finding the right method of birth control that works best for you isn’t easy. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey and the process of finding yours?
My journey was a little bit of a rocky road… I started on birth control when I was 16 years old. I started on the pill. And, you know, two years into crying randomly and feeling not myself and out of sorts, I realized that it was probably the hormones that I was putting into my body every day. And so I switched then from the pill to the ring. Because, you know, at the time it made sense to me that instead of putting hormones throughout your whole body, you localized. But you’re still putting hormones in your body and you’re putting those hormones in a very precious place. And so I ended up just going off birth control and kind of keeping my fingers crossed—which, again, isn’t an ideal method. When I was approached by Phexxi I went in very skeptically because I was anticipating a male CEO who would pitch this product to me and tell me about my own body and tell me about birth control, [but] I opened up the Zoom and it was just this wall of women. And at the center of the Zoom was Saundra [Pelletier], who’s the CEO, and she spent the next hour telling me her story. Telling me her vision for this product, just demonstrating how deeply passionate she is about this product and she’s such a fighter and I was enamored.
How has birth control allowed you to write your own rules and advance your career?
Being able to decide when I only use a birth control when I have sex, not having the hormones affecting my mood, making me clear-headed and able to do my job in the way that I need to, it really has given a freedom to my life that I didn’t have before.
Your show Kevin Can F**k Himself is also about women choosing their own best paths. How do you think Allison’s journey in Season 1 has reflected the struggles women are dealing with today?
I think both women and men over the last, you know, two years that we’ve lived through, I think we’ve all done a lot of taking stock of our lives and what they look like and what we want them to look like and who we want to surround ourselves with. And I think that the character of Allison has done the exact same thing; she’s reassessing and taking stock and cleaning house in a way—again, not condoning murder!—but she’s full of rage and she’s full of frustration, which I think we all are having lived in this world for the last bunch of years. But she’s also full of hope and the desire to make change for the better. And so I hope that that can kind of surpass those feelings of negativity and I think people will be able to identify with the character because of that.
When you play Allison, you are having to juggle acting in a sitcom and a drama at the same time. Is that tricky?
No actually, it was a lot of fun. To be completely honest with you, you don’t have to do a lot of work in the sitcom world; it’s very much up to the dudes to carry the scenes, which makes myself and my friend Mary Hollis, who plays Patty on the show, very jealous because they’re just goofing around and doing jokes and we just get to stand in the corner and, like, wag our fingers and bring them sandwiches. But that’s why we’re so lucky to have the drama part of the show, the single-cam to really do our acting and to have the meatier scenes. It is really cool to go back and forth and just to even see the sets. We shoot on the exact same set, the sitcom and the single-cam are the same set… [They] bring everything a little bit closer and change the lighting and it creates a completely different world, which informs a very different way of acting so it was a really cool experience to do that.
We’re really excited to see you in Season 2 of Russian Doll. Can you give us a sense of what your character is like on that show?
No. I can’t! Natasha [Lyonne, Russian Doll star and co-creator] keeps checking in on me being like, “You still haven’t said anything right?!” No, it’s top-secret, but I can say I had the most wonderful time shooting it. I got to shoot in the subway and I got to drive a sports car down the streets of SoHo and shoot in a brownstone on the Upper West Side. It was just such an awesome experience… I loved working with [Natasha] so much.
Your Russian Doll character is obviously very different from Allison and Alexis Rose?
Yes, an even further departure from Alexis, so yeah, I’m excited for it to come out.
I’m so curious, how often do you have fans come up to you and sing “A Little Bit Alexis”?
I get a lot more “ews” thrown at me. I get a lot of “Ew, David”’s. I did have someone scream sing “A Little Bit Alexis” out the window of their car a little while ago which was very, very funny. It really is happening more and more I think because of the pandemic and people running out of TV to watch, everyone ended up watching the show. So, finally being back out in the world, there’s been a noticeable shift in being recognized. It’s still a little weird to wrap my head around.
I feel like Schitt’s Creek was comforting for so many people who found in during COVID-19 quarantine. How does it feel to have comforted people amid these challenging times?
It’s the best compliment we could get. I had my shows: The Office for me was such, such a comfort and it really did get me through some really, really hard times, and so to be told that Schitt’s Creek is that show for a lot of people, it does really make you feel like you are doing some good and I’m just so happy to hear that it’s provided some happiness and joy to people over these insane bunch of years.
What’s been the biggest lesson you’ve learned from this difficult period?
I mean the importance of, so cheesy, but truly the importance of family and friends and maintaining those relationships and trying to maintain as much empathy for other people as possible because you never know on any given day what anyone has been going through or is going through and so to just try to keep that in mind as much as possible.
Is there anything you learned about yourself during this time?
I love reality television. I love it to the point of maybe it’s a problem.
Which ones!?
Below Deck Mediterranean. It’s the best reality show in the world. You get beautiful settings. You get basically a cooking show. You get drunk, rich a**holes being ridiculous. And you get hot beautiful young people like having little dalliances with each other. It’s perfect. It’s perfect television. Next, how to watch every season of Schitt’s Creek!
