No need to ew your brother today: Annie Murphy, who portrays a reformed international party princess turned gold-hearted PR boss on Schitt’s Creek, received her first Emmy nomination this morning. Playing the vocal-fried and boho-ified Alexis Rose, Murphy nabbed one of the coveted Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series noms for her work in the show’s farewell season, where Alexis, after years of personal and professional growth (and a poignant heartbreak) in the small town, decides to leave to continue growing her business in New York City. Show some respect by demanding your Google Home play “A Little Bit Alexis†on loop for the next 90 minutes. La la la la la la la! Read on for our chat, minutes after Murphy found out that she was a nominee.
How were you alerted of this fantastic news?
I was sitting on the floor eating pancakes, and I’d just finished choking on a large piece of bacon. I gathered around my laptop and found out that way. Actually, the bacon choking was post-finding out; it was a reactionary gasp. [Laughs.] It’s all very wonderful and exciting. Wow. I think there are mimosas on the horizon. It’s all … a lot. But a wonderful lot.
A wonderful lot for the nicest show on television.
I’m very grateful to have been on a show and played a character that was all about love and kindness and inclusivity. By the end of it all, at least, Alexis was all of those things. Especially during these times, those are incredibly important things that people are looking for. I’ll never stop being grateful for that.
What would you consider to be Alexis’s most defining moments?
Her graduation was a pretty big moment for her — that’s high school graduation, let’s be clear. Going back to school and being a rather mature student in a room full of high schoolers and persevering through that. Also the lock-and-key episode, her first big PR event that she handled. She got through it with a broken heart, but she put something wonderful on for other people. That was one of her first big acts of self-love.
How many times do you think you said “ew, David†through the show’s run?
Okay, so, get this. I was told recently that Alexis only said “ew, David†one and a half times. There’s “ew, David†and “David, ew.†And everything else is like “ugh, David†or “ouch, David.†I also love to tack a “David†on there. But the actual amount of times the “ew†was in there is shockingly low.
Wow! I would’ve guessed 50.
I also would’ve guessed upwards of 75. I think we’re both failed and would’ve failed trivia. Let’s say max five, but I think it’s significantly lower than that.
How do you think the Rose clan would be dealing with quarantine?
We’ve watched six seasons of the Roses essentially being in quarantine and they did a pretty good job. I think Alexis, in this particular quarantine situation, would be living it up one way or another. She’d be quarantined on a yacht with Harry Styles and a gaggle of beautiful famous people. She’d be doing perfectly fine.
What were the most annoying words to master in Alexis’s heightened accent?
I think that if anyone had difficulties it would’ve been Catherine with her Moira voice — stretching those monosyllabic words like “how†into three syllables. Or the incomparable “bebe.†The grating on my vocal chords was the hardest.
Will you be raging on the night of the virtual Emmys ceremony?
Certainly not! There will be pizza and pajamas. That’ll be the extent of my plans. I’ll put that out in the open right now. It’s kind of my natural state anyway, so that’s what I’m looking forward to. Did I mention the pizza?