questionnaire Schitt’s Creek’s Annie Murphy

CANADIAN ACTOR ANNIE MURPHY GOT HER BIG BREAK AS ALEXIS ROSE on sleeper TV sensation Schitt’s Creek. After six seasons and countless “Ew, Davids,” she’ll retire the part when the show wraps up with its final season in the new year. “It’s very bittersweet,” she says. “It feels strange that the show’s ending when it keeps picking up momentum, but it is really nice that we knew we would have six seasons and we weren’t just cancelled halfway through.” She says she’s really going to miss “going into work every day to be absolutely schooled by Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy.”

What are your current fixations?

I’ve watched Fleabag three times now. I’ve also watched Pen15 three times. I had watched Succession, only once, but oh my god. And I just started watching the new season of The Crown. I’ve been balancing the drama with the comedy, which is what you have to do these days.

What has been your most memorable or inspirational gig and why?

I got to go see Paul McCartney a bunch of years ago when he was playing on the Plains of Abraham. That was pretty fucking nuts. It was 250,000 people in Quebec City and he played for three hours, alternating between Beatles songs and Wings. He played “Hey Jude” and “Blackbird” back-to-back. Even if I wasn’t high, it would have been the craziest experience, but I did happen to be high, so it was even crazier.

What have been your career highs and lows?

Well, Schitt’s Creek is the highest high I’ve ever had, from a career stand

point. The career low literally came just before that. My apartment had just burned down, I hadn’t booked a job in two years, I had $250 in my bank account. I was quite sure that the universe was saying, “Stop! This is a terrible idea! You need to reassess everything.” I was having a big snotty existential crisis when I got the email for the audition for Schitt’s.

What advice should you have taken, but did not?

“You’ll grow into your eyebrows.” It was from my mom in grade seven or so, when all I saw when I looked in the mirror was the angry baby from The Simpsons. My eyebrows were just this permanent “V” pointing down in the middle of my forehead. I remember so desperately lamenting all the time how much I hated them, and my mom was like, “Don’t worry, one day you’ll be happy with your face.” And I think I have my eyebrows to thank for getting this job in the first place, so she was right. I wish I hadn’t spent so long hating my angry Simpsons baby eyebrows.

What was your most memorable day job?

I worked at a physiotherapist’s office as a receptionist, and for some reason I was also given the task of removing acupuncture needles from clients. Sometimes there were bleeders, so I’d have to deal with bleeding people while answering phones and making appointments. It was a real up and down experience.

If you were not acting, what would you be doing?

I would probably have taken a stab at writing. Maybe I would have tried to be one of those Vice journalists they send all over the world being cool and knowledgeable. Being an archaeologist would have been cool. Now I’m just saying different jobs. I’d probably be running a bookstore. Let’s hope that I get to keep acting, because clearly I don’t have a plan B. Anything but removing needles.

What makes you want to take it off and get it on?

If you can quote The Office like breathing, that’s an immediate on and off for me.

What has been your strangest celebrity encounter?

One of the first “what the fuck is my life?” moments with Schitt’s Creek, I was in New York doing press and we were staying at the Waldorf Hotel, which is so fancy. I was just getting into bed and Dan Levy called me. I think he and Eugene had just taped for Seth Meyers, and he was like, “We’re upstairs, we’re gonna watch the taping. Come on up!” I knock on the door and Martin Short answered the door, dressed in a full tuxedo and carrying a tray of champagne. I sat in the presidential suite of the Waldorf Hotel with Eugene Levy and Martin Short, and watched Dan and Eugene on TV talking about the show that I was still spinning about being in, and drank champagne and listened to them talk about the good old days with John Candy and Gilda Radnor.

Who would be your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what would you serve them?

Why can I only think of Jason Momoa and sausages? I’m just gonna lean into that and relinquish myself to the fact that something in me needs to tell you that it’s Jason Momoa and sausages.

What song would you like to have played at your funeral?

“I Will Survive.” Plot twist, I will never die. I’ll come back to life and everyone will be like, “Whaaat?” It’s going to be a smashing success. You’re more than invited.

“Why can I only think of Jason Momoa and sausages? I’m just gonna lean into that.”